


A Shard of Misfortune

by StarlightAce



Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe- Witches, Angst, But there will be some implied romance even in the beginning, Cha Hakyeon | N - Freeform, Comedy, Demon Summoning, Demon!N, Eventual Romance, Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk - Freeform, Jung Taekwoon | Leo - Freeform, Kim Wonshik | Ravi - Freeform, Lee Hongbin - Freeform, Lee Jaehwan | Ken - Freeform, M/M, Magic-Users, More focused on story than romance, Strong Language, There will also be constant shenanigans, Witch!Hongbin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-07 16:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightAce/pseuds/StarlightAce
Summary: “Ravi stared wide-eyed at the form as one eye, then another one, and another, and another, and several more, flickered as they materialized and faded out of existence with every passing second, like stars fighting against the inescapable pull of darkness.A mouth appeared on its side, speaking in a voice that combined the hissing sound of an overheated car engine and all the forced brightness of a church organ playing a piece in a key with one too many sharps.“Why, hello there. You are the one who freed me, yes?” It said with a ‘smile.’”------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ravi swears he’s the unluckiest man in the world.From his company not letting him become his own artist to a stolen artifact being shoved on him in the middle of the street, Ravi just can’t catch a break. However, his life changes when he accidentally breaks said stolen artifact and summons a demon, who promises to change his sad life in exchange for his soul.The idea of a contract is tempting; finally, Ravi can achieve his dream, for the price of a concept he’s not sure even exists.Or will this contract end up costing more than just his soul?
Relationships: Cha Hakyeon | N/Kim Wonshik | Ravi, Han Sanghyuk | Hyuk/Jung Taekwoon | Leo, Kim Wonshik | Ravi/Lee Jaehwan | Ken
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

Another long day at the studio.

Ravi gazed at the sky and couldn’t actually tell what time it was; pale, orange light bathed the tops of skyscrapers, but didn’t have the strength to light his path. That’s what the streetlights were for, to cover for the sun’s incompetence.

Judging by how dim the sky looked, Ravi assumed it was early evening, but then again it could also be early morning. All-nighters had a way of messing with his time sense.

He couldn't understand it; why wouldn’t the company let him be his own artist? Sure, he made a pretty penny as a composer for other, more popular artists, but his original songs were even better, according to him, and he was his own harshest critic. Heaven knows he’d been under corporate’s thumb long enough for them to start letting him do whatever he wanted, but no, his stuff “wouldn’t sell well.”

As he walked along the street, staring blankly at faces that soon blurred out of memory, he worried about being permanently stuck in the pre-debut stage of his lifelong plan to become a musical genius. He’d joined the entertainment industry thinking he could climb the ladder quickly, but he’d been stuck on one rung for many years. He would have started to panic sooner, if he wasn’t so damn busy all the time.He was just starting to begin said panic, when-

WHOOMPH- a large and heavy object was shoved directly into his solar plexus, knocking the wind out of him and launching his train of thought into the setting sun.

The force of the blow made him stumble backwards and knock against the nearest building. Though thankfully, he did not fall down.

“Stop! Thief!” yelled a voice from behind, and before he knew it, Ravi felt himself get knocked against cinderblock, and he fell down.

After regaining his breath and recovering from being shoved around, he came back to his senses, wondering why on earth someone would steal something when it was still light out.

Sure, stealing was wrong, but doing it at this time, whatever time it was, was just dumb. Obviously someone would see them carrying something off, and all the shady shops to sell it to were only open late at night.

At least, that’s what his limited knowledge of crime movies told him. Black markets were only open at night because that’s what the Black meant, right?

“Either way, I hope the owner gets it back, it was probably important.” he mumbled to himself, watching a herd of guards push through the crowd, bowling them over like, well, bowling balls, except made of multiple, strong-armed people. Or maybe it was more like a-

Ravi stopped himself there before his post all-nighter brain could make any more stupid metaphors, and continued on his way.

He suddenly noticed that his arms were unnaturally heavy.

He was tired, but not that tired.

Something was wrong. Looking down, he found something in his arms.

Large, smooth, and a bit earthy.

It looked like a pot, or something?

Suddenly, it dawned on him.

He was carrying something.

He definitely would've remembered taking something this heavy from the studio, he wasn't tired enough to lose important memories like that.

Whatever heavy object he had looked valuable too, and was literally shoved onto him.

Only a thief would carry something this valuable in his arms in the middle of the sidewalk.

Therefore, he was holding a stolen(?) object, and probably looked like the thief those people were trying to catch.

Well, it looked like it was finally time to panic.

“Uh...hello? Is anyone looking for this? It isn’t mine...” he called, and then cursed himself. That just made _him_ sound like the thief!

“I didn’t take it, I swear! It just kinda….came into my arms, uh…” Shit! That sounded worse!

People were starting to look at him strangely. If he turned himself over to those guards, he would definitely seem like a thief, and if he traced that person’s steps back to where the object was taken from, it’d look like he was returning to the scene of the crime.So, he did the only thing he could think to do at that moment.

He smuggled the thing home so he could put off thinking about it until later.

* * *

Ravi clumsily opened the door of his apartment and freed the pot from its prison in his jacket, breathing a sigh of relief.

Criminal activity, though accidental, was heavy on the heart and body. Seriously, that thing weighed a ton.

Even though he thought he was being very stealthy, people looked at him strangely on his way home.

Someone apparently as tired as he was even asked if he was pregnant, and because he had no idea how to respond to that kind of question and hadn’t gotten sleep in who knows how many hours, he quickly answered ‘yep!’ in a deep and very masculine voice.

Looking back on it, he should have known that that would only make him appear more suspicious, and sighed at the remembrance of the weird looks everyone gave him.

He sort of admired how the thief moved so quickly and easily while carrying it in their arms, since the object was so bulky. But he pushed those thoughts aside. Now that he was home, he could actually get a better look at the thing that had been so rudely shoved onto him.

The object appeared to be an earthy clay pot, glazed with vibrant green and orange patterns and symbols.

There were circular stickers around the outside, that unlike the meticulous pattern painted on the surface, were apparently slapped on with no intention of harmony. A couple rectangular tags with different symbols written on them were stuck on the outside as well, wrinkling over the circular stickers, adding to the visual cacophony.

After looking at it closely, he determined, without a doubt, that this pot was actually really ugly.

Ravi wondered why on earth this would be worth stealing, unless there was something on the inside. The lid felt like it was vacuum-sealed though, and wouldn’t come off no matter how hard he pulled. So he mentally crossed out that possibility.

When he looked closely at the lid, there were even more symbols than on the actual pot. Wait, were these symbols supposed to be writing? Ravi had never been good at recognizing other languages, but even he was pretty sure he’d never seen this one before.

When it came to things he didn’t understand, there was one thing he always did, without fail.

He googled it.

Unfortunately, whatever language the symbols were in, described by his fumbling attempts at keywords, turned up no results.He did learn a little bit about how to glaze a pot, and though it was kind of interesting, he doubted he’d use that knowledge anytime soon. So, he resorted to the second thing he always did when he couldn’t understand something.

He called Hongbin.

After a few rings, he picked up.

“Damn, dude, this had better be good. I was in the middle of an online match, and I was totally killin’ it out there.”

Ah right, according to the clock, it was 8 o’ clock, the nightly Overwatch time. But this was important.

“Ah, well you see, I kinda...have a stolen artifact at my house.” he said hesitantly, feeling himself shrink a bit.

A long pause permeated the air, and then, “I’m sorry, you _what?!_ Listen, I know I’m not the richest or the most generous guy in the world, but if you’re that desperate, you should’ve told me.” he said, baffled.

“No, Bean, I just- Listen, let me explain.”

“Oh, I’m listening.”

After Ravi explained his innocence as well as he possibly could have under the circumstances, there was another long pause, and then an eruption of laughter from the receiver.

“What the hell, man? You really have the worst luck, don’t you? I mean, what are the odds?” wheezed Hongbin, hardly able to contain himself.

Ravi had to admit, the situation was pretty funny, once he took a step back and looked at it. “Haha, right? But uh, that’s not the only reason I called you.”

“A stolen artifact isn’t the only reason you called? You must have a really eventful life, huh. I’m almost jealous.”

Ravi scoffed.

“Well actually, there’s a bunch of weird...symbols or something on the pot, and I can’t recognize them, so I figured you might know something.”

“What, you think that because I’m a witch, I can magically translate any weird languages?”

“Nice pun.”

“Uuuugh, shut up. I didn’t pick up the phone to be attacked, dammit.” he said, and Ravi could feel his agony echo clear through his voice. It was almost funny how much he hated puns.

“But yeah, you’re uh, kinda my only option.” he said, sheepishly.

The witch sighed.

“Well, I could only literally translate them, but it probably won't make any sense. Let me ask you before I come and see this thing. Is there anything else striking about this…’artifact?’”

“Striking? Well..” he said, looking again at the pot to be sure there was nothing he forgot to explain. “Oh yeah, there’s a bunch of round stickers and tags slapped on. Strange, right? It kinda makes the whole thing look super ugly, but maybe they’re marks of history, or something?”

Heavy silences should have been par for the course for this conversation, but this one felt like it came out of nowhere.

“Hongbin? Hello?”

“What kind of...stickers and tags? God, please tell me you’re talking about price tags, or some kid’s stickers that the museum forgot to take off.” he said, voice rising slightly with each suggestion.

“Uh they’re kinda like, circles?” he said, while circling around the object.

“What _kind_ of circles? You gotta be more specific!”

“Like circle circles, I dunno! They’re circular!”

“_Oh_ my god, I mean, do they have writing on them?”

“Yeah, I think so? It’s kinda squiggly and I can’t read it, but-”

Hongbin cut him short with a heavy sigh.

“Alright listen Ravi, I’d be careful with that thing if I were you. I’m coming over right now to check it out, just...stay still, okay?”

“Stay still? What’re you talking abou-” As he said this, he stubbed his toe on the cheap table the pot was sitting on, and-CRASH! It broke into hundreds of pieces. It was then that he realized that his habit of pacing while talking on the phone always led to something breaking. Last week it was a dish set, and today it was a potentially priceless, stolen artifact.

Judging by his response, Hongbin heard the crash over the phone, too.

“What the hell?! You did _not_ just break it.” he said, with clear exasperation in his voice.

“I…...I broke it..” said Ravi as he put his phone on the ground next to him, and started picking up the pieces to put it back together.

“Oh for fu-why are you so clumsy? This is why I told you to stay still! Hey, are you listening?”

He was not listening.

He was entirely too busy fretting over how he was going to return the pot and look innocent now. Puzzles were not his strong suit, and even if he put it back together, there was no way it would look as it did before. The blow must have been really hard, even the stickers seemed to be torn up by the impact. Ah, there was no way he’d look innocent after this. He couldn’t afford to go to jail!

“RA-VI! Say something, will ya?! Are you alive over there?” Genuine worry echoed through the receiver and snapped Ravi out of his spell.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Just…trying to put it together.” he choked, close to tears.

“Okay, okay, just don’t cut yourself or anything, okay?” “I’ll try not to,” said Ravi, and he immediately cut his hand on the sharp end of a clay shard.

As a drop of blood splashed onto a sticker attached to what remained of the lid, the room suddenly turned dark, and flooded with a powerful, menacing aura. The lights flickered on and off rapidly before dimming, like his house was a theater about to begin some kind of grand, Lovecraftian horror production.

And yet, Ravi knew from the chill in the air that it could only be the beginning of something much, much worse, something even the most twisted person hadn’t even thought to write about yet; or perhaps put out of their mind because the thought of its birth was too much for human minds to handle.

“Did you_ literally_ just-........” The cell phone signal cut off suddenly, and Ravi was left alone to cower in front of the evil he had just unleashed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everybody! I've had part of this fic saved for ages, and decided to post it, finally!  
Please enjoy this wild ride! Leave kudos if you like it, and comment if you /really/ like it, or just want to scream with me! Have fun!


	2. Chapter 2

Dread. Panic. Regret. These were the feelings that filled Ravi as he watched the darkness flood the room and swirl around the apartment, making electrical appliances turn on and off rapidly, and creating a sound akin to a strong wind howling through hollow trees.

After an eon lasting a few seconds, the darkness solidified on the apartment walls and began to drip down, its inky blackness melting down like tar, viscous and malignant, before quickly melting into a liquid, then a gaseous shadow.

Inky shadows from across the room were violently drawn to the bloodstained shard, being sucked violently into a single spot by an invisible force, and accumulated into a tall, dark shape that looked like a black hole would if one could look at one. In the same way, looking at this creature felt as if it could be just as deadly.

Ravi stared wide-eyed at the form as one eye, then another one, and another, and another, and several more, flickered as they materialized and faded out of existence with every passing second, like stars fighting against the inescapable pull of darkness.

As it glided across the floor in approach, he flinched and curled up as tightly as possible, trying in vain to hide. It towered over him, its flickering eyes all narrowed in some kind of amusement at his frightened expression.

A mouth appeared on its side, speaking in a voice that combined the hissing sound of an overheated car engine and all the forced brightness of a church organ playing a piece in a key with one too many sharps.

“Why, hello theeeere. You are the one who freed me, yes?” It said with a “smile.”

Ravi could do nothing except reply with a very confident “Uh…...maybe? No?”

The shadow stopped, as all its eyes disappeared at once, leaving only a mouth on the front.

“Well, I don’t see anyone else in this room, and there certainly was only one person’s blood on my seal.” It hissed, making Ravi shrink back even more.

“I-I’m sorry!” he squeaked.

The shadow seemed to flinch backwards in surprise. “Sorry? Why would you be sorry?” It hissed, and leaned closer to the frightened, shivering ball of a man.

“I-I’m sorry I broke your pot….even though it was really ugly, it looked really expensive, so..” Ravi fidgeted with his hands, trying not to see what kind of expression the shadow creature was trying to make.

There was silence, and then a bubbling sound that built up and exploded into a ringing laugh.

“Oh _honey_, I only wish you had broken it into smaller pieces, that thing was _hiiideous_.” it said, rolling flickering eyes in mock disgust.

Ravi had absolutely no idea what to do in this situation. Never in his life had he made a terrifying hellspawn laugh at something he had said, even if it wasn't supposed to be funny.

“Yeah well, if I’d known that someone else hated it as much as I did, I would’ve.” he laughed, loosening up a little.

Another booming laugh from the shadow creature in front of him.

“Oh, you are a real character, aren’t you? Now tell me, darling. What did you summon me for?” it said sweetly as an expectant grin stretched across its entire body.

“Uh, well-I didn’t really summon you, not on purpose, anyway-” he stopped, and shrunk back as he saw the shadow lengthen itself to tower over him even further.

Then, slowly, it sank back to the height it was before, and changed its face to have the same amount of features and placement as a regular human face. “Well today must be your lucky day, then. Isn’t it?” it cooed.

“M-my lucky day?” Ravi said, voice full of fear as he uncovered his face and looked up at the shadow, now even more frightening because it was trying not to be.

As it leaned closer, it softened its voice and said,

“Why, of course. You see, I can grant you any one wish you desire. Anything at all.”

“S-so you’re….like a genie? Break the lamp, get a wish?” he said with a nervous smile.

The shadow seemed to sway in front of him for a minute, as if wiggling invisible hips. “Aren’t you sharp? I am like that. Though my wish does come with a small price.”

“O-oh, really? What is it? I don’t really have a lot of money, so-”

It giggled at his response, which was simultaneously bubbly and absolutely terrifying, like a schoolgirl skipping around with a bloody knife.

“Silly, it doesn’t cost any money, do you really think I’m that greedy?”

“Uh no, of course not, but-”

“It’s something only you could give, darling. But you know? I’m not sure you could handle having a wish granted. With every good thing comes great sacrifice, you know.”

It twisted around Ravi as it said this, and though he was still afraid, he was somehow comforted by the shadow’s presence surrounding him, his worries melting away with every new breath.

He thought of everything he’d sacrificed to get this far. Even though he hadn’t made it big yet, he had sacrificed his money, his time, his life to follow the dream he had kept at the end of his one-track mind for so long. Ravi was not above sacrifice. In fact, he lived it. If he could make his dream come true, he would sacrifice anything.

“I can handle it. I-I’ve already given up so much.”

The shadow shook excitedly and placed itself in front of Ravi.

“Oh, really? Well in that case, what do you most desire?” It leaned forward, almost touching Ravi’s nose as its eyes flickered wildly.

“I…I wish that I-”

Ravi was cut off by the sound of the door breaking off its hinges, and the sting of salt that pelted him directly in his face and eyes.

“Don’t TOUCH him, you half-baked hellspawn!” yelled Hongbin, charging into the apartment and throwing a handful of salt directly at the shadow creature, causing it to recoil.

“Hongbin?!” he blurted, totally in shock. Right, he thought he had heard screams coming from the direction of his phone, though he’d credited it to hallucinations caused by the shadowy monstrosity now cowering in fear of rock salt.

But now, Hongbin was completely focused on his target. As he desperately threw handful after handful at the monster in front of him, it backed away, hissed something, and sunk into the floor, disappearing into the shadows. It was gone, for now.

Hongbin finally turned to Ravi, looking angry and frazzled with ruffled hair, a flushed face, and shoes that were put on the wrong feet. He reached down to Ravi and grabbed his wrist, pulling him up to look him in the eyes directly. Ravi flinched. He knew was in trouble.

“H-Hongbin, I-”

Hongbin raised his hand like he was about to punch his friend in the face, but instead pulled him into a crushing hug, holding him like he was going to disappear into the shadows, too.

“Don’t _ever_ worry me like that again, you dumbass! If you had gotten yourself killed, I, I would’ve personally brought you back to life and killed you myself!” He said, his voice faltering.

“Stupid, you can’t even do those spells yet!” said Ravi, holding just as tightly to his dear friend.

“Well, you know what? I’d learn specifically just to kick your ass!” he said, trying to hide the fact that he was obviously crying.

As the two nearly crushed each other in their emotional embrace, Ravi suddenly felt the weight of everything that had happened that day; along with the immense relief that he had people like Hongbin, who cared enough about him to save him when he was in trouble. And so he stood there for a long time, crying on Hongbin’s shoulder, thankful that he existed.

But it didn’t last for long. After they released each other, Hongbin grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the apartment, using regenerative magic on the door to put it back on its hinges.

“You have to get out of here. I don’t know how long salt will keep it away. I have protective charms at my house, you’re gonna need some.” he said, yanking the still puffy-eyed man down the hallway.

Ravi sighed in relief. “Yeah, I need to get out. I didn’t want to clean up the pot anyway. And now there’s a bunch of salt on my floor, too.”

Hongbin lightly hit Ravi and laughed.

“Yeah, it’s just like you to avoid cleaning, isn’t it? You got lucky this time, Kim Wonshik.”

“I told you not to call me that anymore! It’s weird, you know?”

“It’s not weird, it’s your name, dumbass. Who goes by their stage name, anyway?”

“Wha-I do, that’s who!”

The two of them laughed with each other as they walked towards the bus stop, trying to distract each other from the events that had just transpired.

Strangely enough, even though the two were only brought together because of his mistakes, he was happy to hang out with Hongbin again; it had really been too long. They’d both been completely busy with work as of late, and they’d only contacted each other about once that month. Maybe finding the pot was fate, in a way? Even with a broken door, a salty floor, and some kind of horrific hellspawn potentially on the loose, Ravi still couldn’t help but smile.

Maybe there was a bright side, after all.


	3. Chapter 3

“Sorry we had to take the bus, that teleportation spell took a lot out of me.” Hongbin said as he stepped off said bus, shoes finally placed on their proper feet after what probably seemed like forever in the perfectionist witch’s eyes.

“N-no, it’s fine. I don’t want you to get hurt for my sake.” said Ravi, planting his feet on the ground and beginning to walk clumsily, still shaken from the previous hour’s ordeal.

The dark and hazy sky was dotted with a few tiny stars, twinkling weakly in the light pollution, struggling to make themselves known. Usually this kind of sight would be calming to Ravi, but the twinkling stars could only remind him of the eyes of the monster he faced earlier, and he opted to stare at the ground as he walked instead.

In the very back of his mind, a small piece of him wondered if tonight would be his last night.

Hongbin might have scared the shadow off for the time being, but he had this overwhelming feeling of paranoia that seemed to possess him ever since he broke the pot. Even though the monster hadn’t tried to harm him in any way, he couldn’t begin to guess what its intentions were. And since it had practically convinced him to make a deal when he didn’t even know the terms in just a few short minutes, well-

“Hey, look up. We’re here.” Hongbin said, his voice mercifully tearing Ravi away from his downward spiral.

He faced the entrance of the familiar house, and felt his worries melt away. A wooden sign next to the door, printed with the words ‘Magic Bean Healing’ (next to a cute picture of a bean sprout) squeaked as it swung in the light breeze, illuminated by the soft, golden aura of the porch light that flickered on when they moved closer. Hongbin pulled out his keys after some fumbling and opened the door, gesturing for his houseguest to step inside.

As Ravi stepped into the house, he was overcome with a mixture of nostalgia and amazement. Truthfully, this house used to belong to his family. Hongbin had lived with them for a year or so when he started out and became an independent witch. Ravi had spent practically his entire childhood there, and Hongbin became part of the family, even though he didn’t stay long. But eventually, they both moved out after Ravi set out to become a rapper and Hongbin set up his own magical business in the inner city.

However, since Ravi’s family retired and moved away a few years ago and had a bit of trouble selling the house, they asked Hongbin if he wanted to occupy the place instead. He agreed, and now his home had been converted into a combined business and living space, which worked pretty well since it meant there was no guilt in playing video games while business was slow.

Magic Bean Healing was a business that offered many eclectic services, though it centered around Hongbin’s incredible healing capabilities.

Since a surprisingly large demographic of people in the city were distrustful of clinical medicine, they came to him with any symptoms or even life troubles they had. Although his patients claimed to be more fond of traditional medicine, healing by magic was anything but traditional. He could either heal them with magic instantly if the wounds were physical, or give them charms to prevent problems such as chronic health ailments from recurring or getting any worse. He also happened to sell protection charms for everyday problems such as bad luck, love help, etc.

And magical plants, though that was more like a side business. Needless to say, the place had changed quite a bit since Ravi had last been inside, but it still felt like home to him.

“Sorry about the mess,” said the owner of the house, picking up a single scarf off the ground.The rest of the house, as far as Ravi could see, was spotless. Typical Hongbin.

“I uh, see you got some new plants. Though isn’t this way too many for one room?” said Ravi, gesturing to the hanging ferns, ficus tree, and potted flowers that were all clustered around the counter with the cash register.

“Pfft. If you really think that’s too many plants, you should see the upstairs.” he said with a smirk.

“I think you’ve got a problem, man. You’re taking the term “flower boy” way too literally.” he said, examining a healthy leaf on the plant closest to him and wondering how on earth his friend had time to take care of all of them.

Hongbin had given him a plant once, as a birthday gift, and it promptly died within 3 days of reception; it was supposed to be an easy plant to take care of, too. He supposed he had what people called a Black Thumb.

“Ah, shut up. Make yourself comfortable, I’ll make you something.” said Hongbin as he walked in the direction of the kitchen.

At those words, Ravi flinched reflexively. “Y-you’re making food?” he said with a shudder.

“Wh-hell no I’m not making food! I meant I’ll make you instant tea, I’m ordering chicken and pizza.”

“Oh thank God,” Ravi sighed with relief. He didn’t think Hongbin would be cruel enough to subject him to his cooking, but it never hurt to be wary.

“What kind of cruel person does he think I am…” Hongbin mumbled, echoing his friend’s thoughts before picking up the phone to order their food.

* * *

“N-no, I swear! Me and Ken are just friends!” he defended, face turning red.

“Yeah right, and I’m a famous and beloved K-pop idol. You really suck at pretending, you know.” Hongbin said as he munched on a piece of pizza. “May as well just ask him out already, since you’re so damn obvious.”

“What? No way! You know I’m no good at that stuff.” he said, remembering that one time in the ninth grade he tried to ask a girl out. Yeah, he didn’t even need to hear her answer; he was pretty sure that anyone who passed out while asking a girl out wasn’t made of boyfriend material.

“Oh believe me, I know. But he’ll probably think it’s cute that you tried anyway. Or, you could ask him for a love fortune and see what he says.” he said all smugly and singsongy, smirking mischievously.

“Beaniiiiiie, pleeaaase-” he begged, trying not to explode of embarrassment.

Hongbin slapped his back and they both nearly fell out of their chairs laughing, even though nothing funny had happened. It had been a while since they had talked like this. Ravi was usually busy with work, and Hongbin wasn’t the type of person who would call first, so they rarely got to see each other. Not to mention that Ravi only owned a shitty flip phone, so they couldn’t video chat with each other, either. It was nice to be together again.

Though behind their well-constructed facade of happiness, they were both avoiding the topic that had been on their minds since a few hours ago. Ravi was slowly getting more nervous as their light-hearted banter continued, knowing that avoiding talking about the elephant in the room would only make the knot in his chest grow tighter until it choked him. Finally, he spoke up.

“Hey, Hongbin. Why-what happened back at my apartment? I know you know something, but you won’t tell me, and it’s like, really freaking me out. I just wanna know how to fix it...” he said uneasily, moving his hands in all sorts of directions as he tried to forced words out.

Hongbin blinked at the sudden change in topic, and grimaced. This was the topic he was afraid of breaching. How was he supposed to tell him that there was no way to fix it? Still, Ravi was somehow very ignorant in the ways of the supernatural, despite having a witch as a best friend. Maybe he could very gently explain just how screwed they were.

“Well, uh…I don’t know how to tell you this, but I have lots of news and all of it is bad.”

“Give me the worst news first.” said Ravi, bracing himself.

Hongbin took a deep breath and grimaced before speaking.

“You, through your horribly awful luck, somehow released a sealed demon that was super powerful and had been locked away for centuries, judging by how old the uh, clay shards looked.”

Ravi stared blankly at his friend’s face.

“Is that worse than like, a regular demon?” he said, blissfully clueless.

“Is it worse than- no shit it’s worse than a regular demon! Think, man! Anything that’s sealed off has gotta be sealed off for a reason!” he yelled, but paused and lowered his voice after seeing Ravi nearly jump out of his skin before continuing.

“Seals take a really long time to make because they have to be extremely complex to be useful, and the maker can’t afford to make any mistakes. I didn’t see the stickers on the pot, but judging by just how many stickers there were, I’d say whatever creature was released was really, really dangerous.”

“Oh no…why am I always so clumsy? I-it got out because the pot broke, right?”

“Well yeah, it came out ‘cause you broke the pot, but it was your blood that broke the seal so quickly. If you hadn’t cut yourself, it probably would’ve taken a couple hours to fully form itself, which I guess would’ve given me some time. That’s why I told you to-oh no, please don’t cry.” he said in vain as Ravi started sobbing.

“W-why do you even hang around me? I can’t do anything right, I can’t even stay still right..” he choked through tears.

Oh no, it was Genuine Human Emotion, Hongbin’s greatest weakness.

“Ah no, well, I uh- please don’t- Hey! It’s in the past, right? There’s nothing we can do about it now- look, I don’t know everything about this demon yet, so it might not be as dangerous as you think, right?” he stammered, desperately patting Ravi on the back with way too much force and desperation.

Unsurprisingly, this did nothing to cheer him up. He sighed and put his hand on Ravi’s shoulder.

“Look, we’ll just- there’s no way a demon would come near a witch’s house, so you’re safe here. And I’m good at making seals, so if it’s got the guts to try, I can at least keep it in place, okay? Y-you don’t need to worry.”

Ravi looked up at Hongbin, eyes still glistening with tears. “R-really? Are you sure?” There was absolutely no way anyone could say no to that pitiful face. He was like a large puppy looking through the bars of a shelter cage, hoping to be adopted.

“Yeah, of course! So please, stop crying, I can only handle so much emotion in one night.”

“O-okay...thank you so much.” he said softly as he clung to Hongbin’s arm.

“Geh. You’re welcome, I guess. I didn’t really do anything, though.” he said, leaning as far away from his friend as possible.

“I do have one question though. The shadow, er, demon, told me it could make any wish come true. Is that right?”

“Well-” he paused, “It’s not wrong. But making a contract is very dangerous, and it’s permanent.”

“H-how is it dangerous?” he asked, not seeing what was so bad about having a wish granted.

“You seriously don’t know? In exchange for anything the demon does for you, you give up your immortal soul.” he said, very matter-of-factly.

“Like...the kind of soul I put into my music?” said Ravi, confused.

“Even more than that. Your passions, your personality, heck, everything that makes you an individual will be given to the demon when you die. And when it eats your soul, well...you cease to exist, and no one will remember you.”

If the demon had suddenly decided to appear right then and there and start frantically dancing the macarena, possessing things, and shoving Hongbin’s cooking down his throat, it wouldn’t have been as scary to Ravi as Hongbin made the concept of a contract sound. And he screamed.

“And to think, I almost let that thing make a deal with me?!” he yelled as he held his head in his hands.

“Wait, you WHAT?!”

“I, aaahhhhh...”

“Say no more. You didn’t do it, and that’s what’s important here. Ah man, this mood is way too heavy. Wanna play video games or something?”

“Ugh, no. You always beat me and rub it in my face.”

He shrugged. “Can’t help being skilled. How about we do something you’re good at, then.”

“Sleep?”

“I-well, you are good at that. I need to stay up to crunch some numbers though, are you sure you can you sleep without me?” he teased.

“Pfft. Yeah, I’ve been doing it for ages.” he said, crossing his arms to hopefully cut off his circulation at the torso, and prevent the blush from rising to his face. Obviously, his efforts were in vain.

“Ah, whatever. Get to sleep then, just don’t knock over the plants.” said Hongbin as he walked through the kitchen and into the basement.

Oh, so he had to share a room with the dreaded plants. Great.

Ravi walked upstairs, nearly knocking over yet another clay pot, though thankfully, his lightning-quick reflexes prevented his daily ceramic casualty count from rising. Sighing in releaf- er, relief, he went to his room, the same one he had when he was younger, and flopped on the bed.

* * *

Even though Ravi usually slept like the dead until morning, tonight he found himself awake at 3am. He didn’t have any nightmares or anything, since he never had dreams to begin with; but woke up in a panic for seemingly no reason. And so, he went downstairs to get a glass of water, because dang if waking up suddenly in the middle of the night doesn’t make you thirstier than a fish in a desert.

While he sleepily walked down the stairs, he heard voices coming from the kitchen. He knew Hongbin was here, but he had never heard the second one before. On instinct, he backed against the wall and listened.

“Ah! Geez, be more gentle, will you? Why do you have to make it hurt so much?” said the mystery person. The voice was deep, so it could have been a man, but one could never be too sure. He’d heard some pretty deep-voiced women while working in the music industry.

“You know as well as I do that I can't make it hurt any less.” This voice was Hongbin, for sure. But what were they doing?

“Aw, you’re so mean. Can’t you loosen up just this once?” the voice said, teasingly. “No way, not for a second. And can you be quieter? I have company over.” Hongbin said harshly.

“Oh, really? Then I’ll be louder-ow! Stop that!”

“You deserve it.”

One part of Ravi really, really didn’t want to walk into whatever was happening in the kitchen, but his curiosity was killing him, and his body desperately craved sweet H2O. If he snuck in through the other door, he could probably get by without them noticing him, right?

So he snuck in quietly. Very, very quietly, until-

“Yo, are you awake now? That’s rare.” He jumped and spun around quickly. There was Hongbin, and a...shirtless boy covered in bruises he had never met before. Well, this was awkward.

“Uhh...I didn’t see anything, I swear!” he yelped as he covered his eyes, his face turning red.

“What the hell are you-?”

“I’m sorry! B-but you should’ve told me you had a boyfriend!”

“Wh-WHAT?!” Hongbin choked.

The mystery boy next to Hongbin started laughing loudly.

“Does he really think- oh my god this is priceless, I wish I had a camera to see the looks on your faces right now, ha!”

“Hyuk, this isn’t funn-” “Well, I guess it is suspicious. Me coming into your house in the middle of the night, he sees me when my shirt is off, and we were making noise,” the expression on his face grew brighter with every word he said, and even though he looked like he was in real pain, he was laughing so hard that one might almost forget how helpless he looked. Hongbin looked like he was going to melt into a puddle of embarrassment, and Ravi hesitantly opened his eyes after it was confirmed that this boy was not, in fact, Hongbin’s secret lover.

He noticed that the kid had a black eye. Did he get into a fight?

“Ugh, Ravi, this…is Hyuk. My _friend_ and customer. He uh, comes over sometimes and I heal him.” said Hongbin, desperately trying to recover from the horrific misunderstanding of a few seconds ago.

“Hey, nice to meetcha, Ravi.” he said, still looking at Ravi with a mischievous grin.

“Uh, hey there. Hyuk, right? Nice to meet you.” said Ravi, still looking slightly embarrassed at his prior mistake, and checked to see if Hongbin was okay. Turns out, he bounces back fast.

“Anyway, now that you’re introduced, you should probably go back to sleep. Hyuk’s gonna stay here too, if that’s okay with you.” said Hongbin, fully recovered.

“Yeah, that’s fine, I mean I’m not the one who owns the house, but...don’t you only have two bedrooms?” he inquired.

“Oh, are you offering to sleep on the floor? Be my guest.” Hongbin said with a malicious smile.

“Ah, he doesn’t have to do that. I’ll just sleep on the couch. See you in the morning,_ babe_.” said Hyuk, snickering as he made his way upstairs.

“Man, if he weren’t injured right now, I’d hit him so hard.” mumbled Hongbin under his breath.

Ravi took that as his cue to leave, and attempted to scurry up to his room, when he felt a really hard tug on the back of his shirt. Turning around slowly and carefully revealed a very angry looking witch. Ravi was fully prepared to run for his life, but his feet stood still, and his forehead took the brunt of a flick with surely tons of malicious intent behind it.

“Go to sleep, dumbass. Lord knows you’ve created enough misunderstandings for one day.” he said, and softly laughed to himself.

“G-got it. Sorry about that.” said Ravi, as he walked slowly up the stairs, trying hard to avoid knocking over the bulbous clay pot he almost knocked over earlier, and succeeded, before kicking over _another_ pot.

“God _dammit_, Ravi!”

Ravi, after running to his room and slamming the door, swore he could hear a laugh echo from a distant room. He couldn’t wait for the night to end, already.

* * *

The morning was extremely awkward. The three of them sat around to have a breakfast made of semi-edible waffles courtesy of Ravi (the only one of them who knew how to cook without burning the house down), but the air around them was heavy. Hyuk kept stealing glances at Ravi and Hongbin and chuckling to himself, Hongbin was trying really hard not to notice and subsequently punch Hyuk, and Ravi still had that overwhelming feeling of paranoia that lingered from last night.

“Well, I should probably go. I have to go to work and all, and, yeah.” Ravi stammered, standing up quickly and scraping his leftovers in the trash.

“Wait! Before you go-” Hongbin stood up, nearly knocking his chair over, and placed something in Ravi’s hand. It was a piece of metal, carved with swirly designs with a thick, red ribbon tied to the top.

“What is this? A piece of metal?” he asked.

“It’s a protection charm. Steel for willpower, so you won’t be easily swayed by that thing if it comes back. Listen, you can come back anytime, okay? I’ll be here.”

He stared at the charm in his hands, feeling truly touched that Hongbin would make something like this for him. He knew these charms didn’t come a dime a dozen.

“Thank you, for everything.” he said, tiny tears pricking his eyes.

“Ah, don’t be so cheesy, you’re giving me goosebumps. Aish.” said Hongbin, looking over at Hyuk. Sure enough, he was watching them with that annoying look on his face.

“Anyway, you should get to work, so hurry up and catch the bus.”

“Yeah, I will.” said Ravi as he turned to go to the door. As he was walking out, he heard one more comment from Hyuk;

“Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of Hongbinnie while you’re gone!”

Ravi laughed and walked out the door right before he heard a loud laugh and an explosive shout of Hyuk’s name from the other side.

As he walked to the bus stop and ran his finger over the charm, he couldn’t help but feel that things were going to be okay. Even if Hongbin wasn’t perfect at his magic, he knew he could count on him whenever he was in trouble. And really, what more does a person need than a good friend? Yes, everything was going to be okay.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly, he felt a pulling sensation from underneath him, threatening to knock him to the ground as anxiety returned in full force, so strong it could choke him and anything in a 100 yard radius. He felt like he could throw up as something, something passed through his body and concentrated itself...behind him.

“Hiiiii, did you miss me?”


	4. Interlude 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! Thank you for reading the story this far! I hope you're enjoying it~  
Throughout the story, there will be interludes that are either  
1\. shorter than a normal chapter, and therefore wouldn't count as a Chapter, or  
2\. are from a minor character's (aka not N or Ravi's) point of view. Ravi doesn't get out much (whoops), so there will be plenty of these.  
If I have a short interlude, they will be included with a normal chapter update.  
If one an interlude is very long (like some will be in the future), it will count as its own chapter.  
I think you all will enjoy them. Enjoy this one for now! (^u^)  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A soon as Hongbin heard the door close, he lunged at Hyuk and put him in a headlock.

“So, you think it’s funny to make your hyung look scandalous? Hah?!” he said as he gave him a noogie.

“Ah, mercy! Mercy! You’re gonna hurt an injured kid even more? So cruel!” he said, fighting back by pulling Hongbin’s arms open and grabbing him by the shoulders.

Hongbin stopped and pushed back slightly.

“Right, I never finished healing you yesterday, did I?” he said as he observed Hyuk’s black eye. It was a little less swollen than yesterday, but still looked like it hurt a whole lot.

He saw Hyuk shrink back, looking more like the kid he was.

“No, i-it’s not that big of a deal, you don’t have to..”

“I have to. I know healing hurts, but it’ll hurt a lot less than dealing with those bruises for several days.” he said, checking to see if Hyuk’s demeanor changed positively at all. It looked like that wasn’t the right response, so he tried another.

“This really isn’t a big deal for me, you know? I do this every day, for a living. You’re not being a burden.”

Hyuk looked up and nodded at him softly; it looked that that was the better thing to say.

“Alright, take off your shirt.”

Hyuk instantly perked back up and gave one of his patented stupid smirks.

“Ooh, what a bold request, hyung.”

Hongbin rolled his eyes. “Keep this up, and I’ll actually fight you.”

“Whatever you say,” he said as he took his shirt off. Ah, it really wasn’t a pretty sight. Large bruises covered his back and dotted his front, and aside from the small area that Hongbin had been able to heal last night, he looked more like his natural skin color was black and blue than the usual white.

“Bastard…” Hongbin whispered under his breath. He couldn’t believe that Hyuk had managed the strength to walk all the way to the healing house from his own. Even moving must have been painful, he couldn’t imagine having to walk a half-mile in this condition.

Hyuk saw his friend wince and sat down as he tried to cover up his front with his arms. He sighed and pulled up a chair behind Hyuk’s, and began to softly touch his back, preparing for the healing spell.

“Now I know you probably know already, but this is gonna hurt. It sucks, but after it passes, you won’t hurt anymore.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. You tell me that every time, but it’s not gonna change anything.”

The witch winced at those words.

“Sorry, I’m legally obligated to. Don’t want the law coming after me.”

“You mean after you _again_?” Though his words could have been, the tone of his voice was completely flat.

Hongbin was almost thankful he couldn’t see his expression from this angle.

“Right. Again. Now then, let’s begin.” he said as he whispered the healing spell for minor wounds under his breath.

As he touched Hyuk’s bruises with great care, they began to disappear from his back completely after changing colors, from blue to red to yellow to the normal skin tone. However, with each bruise that disappeared came a small groan of pain from Hyuk.

He couldn’t blame him. One of the consequences of healing magic was that with every injury that healed, it would hurt twice as much as it did when the wound was inflicted. The pain was only temporary, but felt like being scorched by fire for even minor wounds like cuts and bruises. He knew because he had to be healed once, for a blow inflicted to him by the instructor for healer training. They wanted him to know how his patients would feel when being healed, and man, they did not feel good. The fact that his patient now wasn’t screaming was actually quite something, though he always had been a tough cookie.

“Alright, I’m done with your back, I’m moving to your front.” he said as he walked around the chair to Hyuk’s front, noticing that his front was much less bruised than his back. But usually, the injuries were only on the back.

“Knock yourself out.” he said without any feeling whatsoever, finally moving his arms from his chest.

As Hongbin moved around, he noticed that there were tears running down Hyuk’s face, probably from the healing pain. The poor kid. He wanted nothing more right now than to hug him and tell him that things were gonna be okay, but he knew that Hyuk hated being pitied more than anything. So he held back and started working on healing his front. This side was much more sensitive, so he got short yelps of pain this time. As he was working, he tried to figure out what had happened.

“The bastard’s gotten bolder. Was there a ‘reason’ this time?” he said, not looking up.

"N-no. Not this time, at least I don’t think so.”

“Was he drunk?”

“Yeah.”

A long pause.

“I swear, I’ll kill him one of these days.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Why not? He’s caused you more than enough pain already, he's lost the right to call you his child!”

A heavy silence.

“And what does your mom do? Nothing? How can they pretend they-”

“Hyung, please...stop it.” he said, his voice wavering.

Damn, Hongbin had gotten carried away again. He couldn’t help it, Hyuk’s situation was just despicable.

“I’m sorry.” Hongbin said, standing up. “Do you want me to heal your eye? It looks pretty bad.”

“No. I-I’m afraid of it hurting too much.”

Now that Hongbin could see him clearly, he could see that Hyuk’s face was red and completely soaked in tears. Though he was trying to hide his face by looking away, he couldn’t hide the pain.

“I guess there's no way around it, then. You’ll just have to stay here until it heals.” he sighed with mock disappointment, then smiled at Hyuk.

“What? But you have your business...” he said as he looked up slowly.

“And you think I don’t have a world of entertainment upstairs? I didn’t get the newest season of One Piece on DVD for myself, you know.”

That got him to smile.

“C’mon hyung, you think I haven’t already seen those episodes? You should know by now that I’m a fanatic.”

“Hey, don’t turn down my generosity. It’s just ‘cause I don’t want you messing up my rank in Overwatch.” he joked.

“Ah yeah, you and that weird game again. If you love it so much, why don’t you just marry it?”

“I would if I could, bro. I would if I could.”

They both laughed, glad the mood had lightened considerably.

“Sorry you didn’t get your room last night, Ravi came over ‘cause he was having problems too, and- now that I think about it, he probably forgot to make his bed.” He sighed. “I’ll be back,” he said as the turned to go upstairs.

“Okay hyung, sorry you have to keep cleaning up after your many love interests.” he snickered.

“What the hell did you just say to me, you little-” he snapped as he turned around and lunged after Hyuk again.

It was going to be a lively day, for sure, even if no customers came. It was always fun having Hyuk over, even if his visits were always due to horrible circumstances. Still, it’d be fun to beat him in video games later.


	5. Chapter 5

That voice.

Ravi whipped around quickly, checking to make sure he wasn’t going crazy.

There was nothing there.

Confused and extremely jumpy, he turned back around slowly, as to not catch the notice of anyone who happened to be passing by, or any creatures that might be looking to attack him. There was nothing. That was just his imagination, right? There was no way that demon would’ve followed him all the way to Hongbin’s. It was supposed to be too dangerous, right?

Up here, Kim Wonshik~” the voice came from..above this time?

Sure enough, when he looked up, there was the demon; on his head, grinning and looking directly into his face with its many eyes.

“Good job, you found me!” it giggled.

Ravi yelped and fell backwards, like any sensible person would do in that situation.

“Uwa-wa-wha-wha-” he stammered and flailed wildly, pointing at the demon’s facial features as they appeared and disappeared from its body.

“Goodness, don’t you know that pointing is rude in mortal culture? Or have humans forgotten the art of manners?” it huffed, narrowing its eyes slightly.

“How did you _get_ here? Did you follow me? Wait, do you know my na-” Ravi was cut off by a demon hand over his mouth that had spawned suddenly.

“Yeesh, so many questions. If you must know,” it puffed itself up pridefully, “I’ve been hiding in your shadow this whole time. I’ve been able to hear everything that’s happened since yesterday, just by listening to you. Pretty clever, hm?”

That would explain the uneasiness he had felt over the last 24 hours, and why he always felt like he was being watched when there was no one around. And, wait a minute-

“Hey, if you’re such a stickler about manners, then why were you eavesdropping? T-that’s not polite at all.” he said, crossing his arms.

The thing had the nerve to laugh. “Oh, you’re too much! Did you forget? I’m a demon, hello! We’re _supposed_ to be nasty.”

“Well good, you’re doing a _great_ job, then.”

He hadn't exactly mastered Hongbin's brand of sarcasm, but he was learning.

“Why thank you, I’m flattered. Now then, about last night,” it swirled around Ravi’s head and stared him right in the face, all of its eyes pointing towards him, flickering slower than usual in a display of focus. “I believe we were interrupted.”

Ravi gulped as he reached into his pocket and grasped the charm Hongbin had made for him. Steel, for sturdiness and willpower. He could overcome this.

“N-no.” he stammered.

“No? What do you mean, ‘no’?” it hissed as it somehow forced itself even closer to Ravi’s face, narrowing its eyes in rage.

“N-no, I won’t give my soul to you. And I’m not sure who would risk something so important just to get something they want.” he said, forcing himself to look into the demon’s eyes. Or-eye, it was too hard to look at all of them at once.

“Hm.” it grunted, backing away from Ravi’s face, looking him over as if sizing him up.

“So your friend told you about that. You would have figured it out eventually. But!” it said, backing away enough to give Ravi room to breathe.

“I can tell that you’re a man of grand ambitions. I know there’s something you want. And I am going to find out what it is, Kim Wonshik.” it said, poking a finger in his chest.

He looked around, looking for some way to run away, and breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the bus driving down the street towards him. And, mercifully, there were passengers on it!

“Listen, this is gonna have to wait until after work, okay?” he said, willing the bus to come faster with his mind.

“Wha-are you just going to ignore me?” it said, slowly sinking into his shadow as it saw people coming towards them.

Ravi did just that as he stepped onto the bus, putting his earbuds in and hopefully crushing any hopes the demon below him had of convincing him to sell his soul on this bus.

* * *

Ah, he was finally at the studio.

The place wasn’t much. Really, it was kind of a hole in the wall. But Ravi found it comfortable to work in, and that was good enough for him.

He flicked on the lights and looked around at the familiar white walls plastered with posters of concerts for artists he’d written songs for.

Someday, he’d put his own poster on the wall; or so he told himself.

Ravi was a full-time composer who wrote songs for other artists, but he’d been working hard to try and branch out to become an independent artist. Heck, he’d met other people at the company who did the same thing, so he figured it should be easy to get himself out there. However, the company needed steady composers, and wouldn't give him a chance to debut. He refused to give up though, and often spent nights at the studio creating his own music when he was done working on other people’s.

It wasn’t the healthiest lifestyle, but he was nothing if not ambitious.

As he threw his stuff down on the couch in the corner of the room, he felt a little bit excited. He had come up with a new idea for a song a couple days ago, but hadn’t gotten to work on it because he was working on a song for a new up-and-coming girl group. But now, he had free time! He rolled his chair to the piano in front of his desk, and-

“Ugh, this place is a dump.” Ah, right. _It_ was still here.

“Well, I’m at least glad to see that lighting technology has changed since the Dark Age.” it said with a hint of disapproval as it floated around the room, looking at the lights in the ceiling.

“Was that supposed to be a joke? It wasn’t funny at all.” he huffed, not facing his unexpected officemate.

“Hm, who can say?” it said, turning its gaze to the posters on the walls instead. “Who _are_ these humans? These paintings are quite realistic.” it said curiously.

“Paintings? These are posters with photographs on them. That’s not recent technology. Uh, how long were you trapped in that pot?”

“Hm, who can say?” it said again, too absorbed in the magic of photographs to pay any attention to Ravi. “Maybe about…500 years?”

“500 years? Woah, what’d you even do all that time?”

“Oh, you know, counted the cracks in the pot, tried to get people to come near me, tried to get people to run away from me; it was quite boring, actually. But now I can count up to 45,953. Before, it was only to 100.”

“Wow.” said Ravi, surprised and a little bit impressed. Though he supposed he could also count large amounts of small objects if he was given 500 years to do it.

A silence filled the room.

It seemed the demon was entirely too busy trying to figure out how one could perfectly project an image of a moving human onto a piece of paper to bother Ravi. Excellent.

“Well, don’t make too much noise. I have to work on this.” he said, turning back to his faithful piano.

* * *

A few hours later, the demon was anything but quiet. It kept itself busy by flying around all corners of the room, popping in and out of Ravi’s shadow (which made him very uncomfortable because he could feel whenever it went in), and complaining.

_Oh_, it could complain.

“I am _so bored_. How can you possibly do this all day? Sitting here is like _torture_.” it whined, sinking halfway into the shadows of the floor again.

Ravi sighed in exasperation for what must have been the hundredth time since this morning.

“For a demon who spent 500 years in a pot, you aren’t very patient, are you? It’s only been like, 3 hours!"

“More like 3 years, ugh. Take me out, I’m so booooooreddd.” it whined with a greater intensity.

“No, I still have to work on this. Go entertain yourself, or something.” “Are you really sure you want to do that? You know what your friend, ah, Hobgoblin said. I was sealed for a reason.” it said slyly. Did it really want to drag Ravi everywhere with it?

“Hobgoblin? You’re not even close.” Maybe it was right though, Hobgin- er, Hongbin did warn that it could be dangerous. A seal that lasted for 500 years on its own was no joke, even he knew that much.

However, just when he was deciding whether or not to unleash this demon to the world for the sake of some peace and quiet, the door opened mercifully.

“Raviii, Ken’s looking for you, he wants you to come to his studio like, soon.”

The girl who opened the door was Park Da Mi, a peppy trainee hoping to become a solo pop star. Her ribbon headband was green today, which meant she was on “people-duty.” She generally wore different colored headbands for every duty she had to perform. The pattern was like a stoplight; green, like today, meant she was totally approachable. Yellow was a warning, usually worn when she was practicing, and red was basically a “stay back” sign, for when she’d had an awful day. He’d learned this the hard way once, when he asked her to copy something for him on a “red” day. Needless to say, he’d never try that again.

Ravi really felt for her. His trainee days were rough, too. But that wasn’t important right now. Ken, of all people, wanted to see him.

“Oh, K-Ken wants to see me?” he said, instinctively brushing out the wrinkles on his clothes. Come to think of it, did he shower last night? He knew he hadn’t changed clothes since yesterday. Oh, this could be bad.

“Chill out oppa, you look fine. It’s probably nothing big, though he said he needed to see you because it was like, ‘necessary to the future’ or whatever.” she said, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. “Though I have no idea what he means, as usual. ‘S probably a fortune telling thing.”

“Ah, okay. Thanks, Da Mi, I guess I’ll go see him now.” he said as he shuffled out of his seat and to the door, only to be stopped by her hand.

“Woah woah woah woah woah! Stop right there! Aren’t you forgetting something?” she said, expectantly.

“Uh, no? What would I-”

“Your smile, duh! You’ve looked so down lately! Hey, if you don’t cheer up, you’re gonna drag me down too, and nobody wants that.” she said, waving her finger.

She was right, nobody wanted that. And Ravi had been pretty down and out lately, for sure. He couldn’t help but smile at her ability to be so observant.

“Thanks for reminding me, I do forget about it sometimes."

“Of course, we all do. Now hurry up! Ooh, maybe if you’re lucky, this “future” will be about your future together!” she giggled.

“Pff- yeah, right.” he scoffed, ears turning a little pink, as he walked down the hallway to Ken’s studio.

* * *

Ravi stood outside Ken’s studio space, hesitantly. The door was open, but Ken was turned away from the door, looking at his computer screen like it had disrespected his entire family. He must’ve been having trouble writing something, or maybe he was losing a game. It was hard to tell with Ken sometimes. Since he clearly wanted to see him though, Ravi knocked softly on the doorframe.

“Ah, what is it this time?” Ken said with annoyance as he swivelled his chair around. As soon as he saw Ravi though, his demeanor became brighter.

“Oh oh oh, it’s Ravi! Come in, already!” he said as he “pulled” Ravi in with an invisible rope.

Ravi couldn’t help but smile, and pretended to be dragged in. Though Ken had gotten to be quite successful, he had never stopped being weird. It was one of the things that he liked best about him.

“You wanted to see me, right? Well, here I am.” he said, sitting in one of Ken’s hand-shaped chairs. Even if Ken thought they were funny or artsy, they really were disturbing. He didn’t know why he kept them around, still.

“Oh, right!” he clapped his hands together suddenly, making Ravi jump.

”Last night, I had this really strong gut feeling, like pow!” he said as he hit his hand with his fist, making a sharp clap. “And so, I was like woah! Maybe it’s the future telling me something! So I heard you had free time after your last project, and I wanna see if I can see what’s gonna happen through you, since I see you like, every day.”

Ahhh, so this was what he meant when he said this meeting was ‘necessary for the future.’

“So I’m your guinea pig, pretty much?” he said. He was a little relieved, but also slightly disappointed that it wasn’t anything huge.

But that was Ken for you, always making a big deal out of something small and a small deal out of something huge.

“Yeah! Well not really, guinea pigs just eat veggies and stuff, and yesterday I saw you eating a burger! So that’s different for sure.” Oh, he was adorable.

Though a small part of Ravi wanted to ask if Ken thought he was cute like a guinea pig, he resisted and instead asked what kind of fortune telling he should try.

Though Ken had become a decently successful solo ballad singer, he was also quite famous within the company for his supposed psychic abilities. Besides being rumored to have the ability to levitate small objects a couple inches off of a surface if he concentrated, he also claimed to be able to “feel” and predict the future if he was given fortune-telling supplies.

Ravi laughed it off as a hoax at first. After all, no human could predict their own future, much less someone else’s, even if they wanted. However, as people from the company started going to him out of curiosity, they found that none of his fortunes were ever wrong. Even if they were a bit vague, even the most skeptical had their fortunes come true eventually. Sometimes he opened his studio for fortune-telling on days he was really bored, and called it PsyKen’s House of Wonder.

He also came to Ravi with "feelings of the future" if something huge was about to happen, such as when Ravi decided to try and branch out, or when the company copy machine somehow spontaneously combusted.

“I’m thinking that since we wanna know more about your present before your future, we should start with palm-reading.” he said, reaching his hand out to Ravi.

“Ah, palm reading, right.” he said, shyly giving his hand to Ken. He couldn’t deny that he felt a little warm when his hand was held like this, even though he should totally be used to it by now with how many “gut feelings” Ken had shared with him.

There was a shared silence between the two of them for a couple minutes.

“So uh, what’s the verdict, PsyKen?”

“Hmm..seems like your fate line is broken up and goes in different directions,” he said, while looking very closely at his hand.

“Is that like, important somehow? Because-”

“FOOL!” he cried, suddenly slapping down a tarot card with his free hand, making a loud SMACK. Ravi flinched at the sudden noise.

It was The Fool card, in the upside-down position.

“Oh, this is interesting. Your fate line is broken up, meaning you’re prone to changes in life from external forces, and your future shows up as The Fool, meaning you’re going to make a life-changing decision. Looks like you’re gonna do something life-changing soon.” said Ken, totally in his element.

“R-really? Will it be good? And wait, weren’t you reading my palm?” he asked cautiously, not wanting to anger PsyKen.

“Well yeah, but then my hand itched for a card. Hmm, well since it’s upside-down, it means that like...you shouldn’t be too impulsive when making your decision, whatever it is.”

“Huh, okay. But where does your gut-feeling come in?”

“Well, I dunno yet. Let’s check to see what your friend fortune is like.” he said as his hand searched the deck of cards, and he pulled out a Tower card, face-up.

“Sudden and unpredictable change.” he said, looking at it with a strange expression.

Sudden and unpredictable. That didn’t sound good at all. But then again, he didn’t have many friends that _could_ change.

“Well, maybe it means you’ll make a new friend, who knows! Anything is possible.”

Seeing that Ravi was uncomfortable with his reading, Ken suddenly burst out- “Hey, I know! Why don’t we predict your present, too! So you’ll know what to do right now! For fun, anyway.”

“Mm. Okay.” he said, eyeing the wall next to him. He really hoped there was nothing in the card deck that said something about demons following him around.

Ken flipped over a Sun card, which turned out to be upside-down. “Oh, I know this one! You’re in a temporary depression, and you don’t know what to do!”

“Woah, how’d you know?” he said, totally shocked. Could the cards read his expressions too?

“Huhuhu, it’s not I, but the cards who know!” he laughed, and put his hand on his chin in an L-shape. “PsyKen never lies!”

He chuckled as he looked at Ken’s confident expression. Maybe he did have psychic powers after all.

Or he stacked the deck. Either was possible.

Ravi had one more question, however.

“Um, say I knew what the life-changing decision would be based on. Should I decide on it now?”

Ken hummed as his hand fluttered over the deck again. Suddenly, he slammed his hand on the table again.

“The stars!” and pointed it upwards. “Are not in alignment!”

Ravi flinched back again in surprise. These fortune telling sessions were like watching the ends of episodes of those late-night dramas. You never knew what to expect. Not like Ravi had ever watched those dramas before or anything. Well, he would never admit that he did.

“S-so I should wait and decide, then?” he said shakily, slowly putting 2 and 2 together. He couldn’t ask anymore questions; he’d have a heart attack if Ken slammed his hand on the table again.

“Yep yep, you should think carefully about it. That’s what your hand, the cards, and the stars all say. But don’t be afraid to make it when the time comes!” he said, and leaned in a little closer to Ravi.

“P.S., that last part just came from me.” he whispered with a little pride in his voice. Oh that was it, he had to get out of here before his heart exploded from cuteness. He then noticed that Ken was still holding his hand from the palm-reading and yanked it away.

“Uh well, thank you PsyKen, for sharing your feeling of the future with me.” he said, slowly backing out of the door.

“Oh it was no problem! Hey, maybe the feeling from the future had to do with you! ‘Cause if your life gets changed, I wanna be around to see it.” he said with a smile.

Time to run.

“OK, thanks, bye!!” he shouted back, quickly walking down the hallway toward his own studio, and trying not to show how affected he was by that whole thing by zigzagging through poles in an attempt to dodge.

He ran into them anyway.

* * *

Ravi ran back into his studio space and slammed the door shut. Then, when he was sure no one was affected by the loud slam, he slid down the door and sat on the ground, releasing a huge, happy sigh.

Suddenly, the demon popped up from his shadow and looked at him smugly. Or at least he thought it was smug, he couldn’t be too sure with the constantly-changing eyes.

“Kim Wonshik likes a boy, I see.” it said slowly, emphasizing each word with additional smugness.

“Ah, shut up, you don’t know anything.” he said, trying to hide his red face in his knees.

“I could make him fall for you, of course. If you just pay the price.” it said, wiggling a little. Its movements reminded Ravi of a tabloid writer who had just gotten her hands on some juicy gossip.

“N-no. If I wanted to, to a-ask him out or anything, I wanna do it by myself.” He said, somehow turning even redder than he had before. Ah, now the secret was out to this demon stranger. The reaction he got was not what he expected.

“Oooooohhh! How cuuuute! Kim Wonshik is naught but a boy in looove!” it sang, fake-swooning.

“You don’t have to say it like- and can you not- there are people, and-” he sputtered, slowly becoming more embarrassed. However, this did nothing to deter the demon’s cooing at how cute his determination was.

“You don’t have to hide from me, I’ve lived for millennia and know _all_ about simple human emotions like love. Well, not that I’ll necessarily _help_ you, but-”

Ravi got up and returned to his computer, trying to mask his embarrassment. He was absolutely not going to have this conversation, especially with a demon that was out for nothing but his soul. He touched keys on the keyboard until he was calm, until he was interrupted by another line from his demon officemate.

“Hey, when are we going to leave? Besides your office crush, this place really is super boring.”

“Maybe in another 500 years, if you’re lucky.” he scoffed.

Ravi felt a little satisfaction as he heard the demon give an extremely long and exasperated groan. He smirked. It was moments like this that made him think that maybe he wasn’t completely powerless after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~   
Hey guys, so throughout the story, I'll be introducing a few OCs, like Da Mi, that I've made.  
Most of them won't be important, but some will be.  
Personally, I mostly put them in here for fun, and to make the world feel more alive.  
I hope you all like them!


	6. Chapter 6

When Ravi thought that his day couldn’t possibly get better after his encounter with Ken, he was absolutely right. 

Though he was able to get a bit more done on the song he was writing for himself, he in no way got the peace and quiet he needed. That demon, now travelling along with him in his shadow, talked quite a lot for not having a visible mouth most of the time. Even now, it was talking to him as he struggled to open the door (thanks to Hongbin breaking it down) and stepped into the apartment. When he stepped in, his mood plummeted even further.

Right. He had never cleaned up the aftermath of his unfortunate encounter with the demon, so salt and clay fragments littered the hardwood floor. Of course, the encountered commented right away.

“Gracious, is this the state you leave your place of living in? Tsk tsk, how dirty.” it said as it exited Ravi’s shadow and hovered over the room in disgust.

“Yeah, alright, next time I accidentally break an ancient artifact and summon a demon, I’ll be sure to clean the place before I flee.” he said, visibly peeved.

Truthfully, the place was messy even without the multicolored pottery bits now decorating the neutral-colored floor. Ravi only came home to sleep and sometimes eat, so he never had time to clean the place. Jackets and shirts inhabited every chair, old music sheets littered the ground, and now that he looked at them, he realized the dishes in the sink hadn’t been washed for at least a week. The place definitely looked lived in, even if the studio was more of a home at this point. Now he could see why Hongbin was always getting on his case.

“You know, we _ could _make you a contract for a nice housemaid. You could use one, trust me.” it said knowingly as it examined the one bloodstained shard in the middle of the room.

As tempting as that offer was, he’d have to decline. He wasn’t selling his soul for a clean house; he could get that himself. Temporarily.

Though he usually wasn’t one to clean, especially when he was ticked off, he figured that it’d be entirely unpleasant to step on broken clay, especially in the middle of the night when it was dark. So he decided to follow Hongbin’s advice for once and grabbed a broom, sweeping the pieces of the pot into a small pile. As he did, he noticed that he was also sweeping up quite a bit of salt. He remembered how Hongbin threw it so fiercely, and how the demon disappeared into smoke at the time. He had really thought it had been defeated then, but-

“Make absolutely sure you get all that salt out of here too, it feels akin to walking on hot coals for me. And unless mortals have somehow learned to enjoy that feeling in the last few centuries, you’ll know that it’s_ very _ uncomfortable.”

He wished he could still think that way. Oh, how he longed for the nostalgic era of just two days ago! Now, his mistakes were hovering over his shoulder, critically watching him clean.

“Do you _ mind _?” he growled, looking over his shoulder back at the black mass of eyeballs “breathing” down his neck.

“Yes, actually, I do mind. I just want to make sure you’re doing a good job, is that so wrong?” it said, crossing its arms that it just formed.

“If you think you can do a better job, then be my guest.” he sighed, placing the broom handle into an open shadowy hand.

However, as he placed the handle into its hand, the broom fell right through its form and hit the ground with a loud SMACK. The demon moved its eyes around shiftily, as if embarrassed, but recovered quickly.

“Hmph, mortal chores are beneath me anyways.” it said gracefully. “Besides, I wouldn’t touch that thing even if you offered me every modern earthly delight you could think of.” it said, waving its hand in the direction of the shards.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying hard not to yell at this thing. There was no use getting it angry at him.

“Fine. That’s fine. Just please…stay over there and don’t talk for a bit.” he said, pointing to a corner of the room.

It eyed him for a second before mercifully hovering to the other corner of the room.

Finally, it was quiet.

After a few minutes of sweeping around the room, he was able to get every piece of the pot that he could find. Thankfully, most of them were broken in pretty big pieces, so it wasn’t hard to gather them all together. As he was about to throw them all out, he realized that it was still stolen goods, and probably had an owner somewhere, even if all the “worth” was gone from it.

He sighed. He really sucked at puzzles, and knew that even if he did have the time and energy to put the thing together, it definitely wouldn’t look pretty when he was done with it; though not like it looked pretty in the first place. But he did know someone who did have puzzle skills and the energy to do it.

He opened his flip phone and dialed Hongbin.

After a couple rings, Hongbin picked up. 

“Wassup? You don’t usually call this much.”

Yeah, he usually wasn’t the kind of person to call first, but this was important.

“Oh sorry, well..you remember that pot I broke the other day?”

“Kinda. I never actually saw it when it was whole, but yeah.”

“Well see, I suck at putting things together, and I wanted you to-” Suddenly, there was a bloodcurdling shriek at the other end.

Muffled, he could hear a “Oh my _ God, _ do you always have to do that when I’m on the _ phone? _”

A silence.

“Sorry, he...does that. Anyway, you wanted me to put it together, right?”

Perceptive as usual. “Yeah, could you come over here and fix it?”

Another silence.

“No, I can’t. I’m ah, a little busy over here-_ can you stop _\- could you bring it over here?” he said, sounding like he was struggling against something.

“Uh, sure. It’ll take me awhile to get there, though.”

“That’s fine, just-hey! Give that ba-....” 

He decided to hang up after the scuffling sounds got to be too much, and swept the clay and the salt into a garbage bag.

As he turned to walk out the door, he heard the demon’s voice from behind him.

“You know, I think it looks better broken up like that. But now the floor doesn’t have those nice colors anymore, how disappointing.”

As he stepped outside, he slammed the door in its face, vainly hoping that it would shut it up long enough to get to Hongbin’s house.

* * *

As he walked up to the door, he sighed in relief. He’d been hearing nothing but chattering and his own unfinished music all day, and to be frank, he was getting seriously overwhelmed. Luckily, he was sure that the demon wouldn’t come with him into Hongbin’s house, and he could usually count on it being quiet after business hours. Finally, he could have some peace.

Or so he thought, until he walked in on Hyuk putting Hongbin in a headlock.

“Give up!” he said, squeezing Hongbin’s head even tighter.

“N-No way! Not until you admit that real ninjas can’t use magic!” he said, pulling against the death grip his dongsaeng had put him in.

“It’s not magic, it’s ninjutsu! It’s totally different!”

“Yeah right, like I believe that!” he pulled harder. “You can’t just make fire and lightning out of chakra energy, it doesn’t make any sense!” he yelled.

Ravi stood in the doorway, watching the two guys squabble for a little longer before clearing his throat.

Hongbin craned his neck to look at him. 

“Ah, you’re here. We were waiting for you, I swear.” he said, effortlessly breaking the headlock. “You remember Hyuk, right?”

How could he forget? He had seen him this morning. But then again, this had been a pretty crazy day.

“Hey, how’ve you been?” he asked, politely.

Hyuk waved shyly back, probably embarrassed about being caught arguing about anime ninjas.

“Anyway, give that to me.” said Hongbin, taking the garbage bag out of Ravi’s hands. 

“I’m gonna need total concentration to put it back together, so you two will be alone for awhile. Be good, okay?” he said, gesturing at Hyuk as he walked down the stairs to his "magic" basement.

As soon as Hongbin left the room, the air between the two became awkward, fast. Aside from their interaction earlier that morning, they hadn’t talked to each other at all. Ravi also wasn’t the best at meeting new people on his own, but for his sanity, he decided to try small talk.

“So, uh, how old are you, Hyuk? You look younger than me, so..”

“I’m seventeen.” he said, very matter-of-factly.

“Ah, I see. Seventeen is a...well, actually, I don't remember what things were like at that age, so...” said Ravi, fumbling for words. He cursed his horrible memory. 

Hyuk eyed him strangely, like he couldn’t figure out if he was a friend or foe.

“You don’t look _ that _old, Ravi-ssi. Do you have memory loss or something?” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“Ah. Y-yeah, something like that.” he said, sweating nervously. It was really more like an unhealthy fixation on the future, though that wasn’t exactly first-time meeting conversation material.

An awkward silence filled the room.

“So, what do you do for fun, Ravi-ssi?” said Hyuk, still examining him with suspicion in his eyes.

“Fun? I uhh..” Shoot, this was the worst possible question. Ravi couldn’t remember the last time he had done anything for fun; he put all of his energy into his work every day.

“I work for fun, I guess? I kinda haven’t had a lot of free time lately, so,”

“But you’re here on your free time, aren’t you?” he said, leaning back a little.

“That is-uh…” the kid was unusually sharp, there was no easy way to get out of the hole he’d dug for himself. Well, no easy way that would end with his dignity in tact. And so, another awkward silence followed.

Ravi silently prayed for something, anything to save him from this social catastrophe.

“Ugh, are you _ kidding _me? If there’s anything I hate more than being trapped, it’s second-hand social embarrassment.” echoed a voice beneath him, preceding the demon as it popped out of his shadow, right in front of his chair.

“Now you listen to me, I have to listen to everything _you_ listen to, and if I have to listen to one more conversation like that, I’m making you a contract to give you social skills, no matter what you have to say about it.” it said, pointing a finger at his chest.

“Uh…you’re kinda out in the open..” he mumbled

“Hm? Yes, I know, but-”

“W-what in the hell is THAT?!” Hyuk shouted, shakily pointing a finger at the shadowy abomination that had just appeared from seemingly nowhere.

“_Excuse _ me?” it said as it moved its eyes to its back instead of turning around. “I think you mean _ who _in the hell is that, you rude little mortal boy.” it huffed. “Honestly, I thought people here talked respectfully to their elders.”

“Okay then, who in the hell are you?” he said, carefully inspecting it while curled up in his seat.

“I’m a demon, of course. Never seen one before?” it said with a little laugh. Ravi could see that it was amused by Hyuk’s reaction, which was probably not a good thing.

“Y’know, I really don’t think you should be out here like this, what if Hongbin finds you?” Ravi said nervously. Hongbin had said that demons would rather die than appear in a witch’s house, and the fact that this one had no problems outright showing itself in one was very worrisome.

“Oh please, a low-ranking witch like that doesn’t scare me in the slightest.” it said, side-eyeing Ravi.

He sincerely hoped it was bluffing.

Hyuk spoke up. “Huh, a demon? That’s pretty cool. But you don’t look like a demon.”

It seemed taken aback. “Excuse me? Care to explain?” it said, making itself a little taller.

“W-well yeah, I just thought that demons had like, horns and a tail. Or at least...arms and legs.” he said, shrinking back a little.

“Hm, artistic interpretation is worth a lot. If only they hadn’t painted us to be so ugly...” it mused.

Instead of listening, Hyuk continued.

“And, the devils in mangas look a lot like humans, even if they don’t have horns or a tail. I’ve never seen a blobby demon like you portrayed anywhere.” he said, becoming a little more relaxed.

“B-blobby?! Why, you-” it geared up to lunge at Hyuk, when mercifully, the basement door opened.

“Hey, Ravi? The pieces will be pretty easy to put together, but it’ll take a little longer to recreate the sea-” Hongbin stopped at the top of the steps, taking a second to appreciate the scene in front of him. A demon, probably Ravi’s, was inches away from Hyuk’s throat, bent over menacingly as Ravi watched dumbfounded in the background. It was like he’d walked into a game of red-light green-light, or a knock-off Renaissance painting.

The demon shrunk back to its original place in front of Ravi and waved innocently. “Hello, witchy-boy! Lovely day, isn’t it?”

“You.” he said, narrowing his eyes.

“This is quite a misunderstanding we’re having, isn’t it?”

“Get out of my house. Or I’ll seal you again.”

“Well, that’s my cue to go! It’s been fun~” it said as it “winked”, closing all the eyes on only one side of its form. Ravi swore he was going to see that in his nightmares tonight.

Hongbin sighed and looked at the heavens as he mumbled something along the lines of, “I leave them alone for ten minutes...”, and gestured to Ravi.

“We need to talk. Now.”

Ravi gulped. He knew it, Hongbin was angry at him. Could this day get any worse? He shuffled out of his seat and followed Hongbin through the sliding glass door to the porch.

He closed the sliding glass door as he stepped out, and Hongbin began to speak after breathing deeply a few times, and counting down from ten.

“So. You brought it into my house.” he said, his hands folded near his mouth.

“I didn’t _ ask _it to come or anything, it just followed me on its own!” he said with frustration.

“It followed you?” he said, quirking an eyebrow.

“Yeah! Ever since this morning, it’s been following me around, it won’t leave me alone, and it just won’t stop talking! It’s driving me crazy, absolutely crazy!” he said, his voice gaining more volume with every word. He felt close to tears, and like he was actually going insane.

“Wait, you didn’t make a contract with it, right?”

“Do you really think I’m that stupid? After what you told me yesterday? You really have no faith in me at all.” he said, looking at the ground to hide his frustration.

“No, no, I trust you, that’s not why I asked. I’m just thinking...it shouldn’t be following you if you didn’t make a contract with it.” he said, putting his hand on his chin in thought.

“W-wait, really? But I really didn’t do anything, I’ve been trying to ignore it all day.” This was just getting even more frustrating. Did it just love to mess with him?

“Yeah. If anything, it should be doing whatever it wants since it’s on Earth and not bound by a contract, but since it’s just following you…”

“What? What is it doing?”

“Listen, I’m just making guesses, but I’m thinking it needs you for some reason.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Well, it could be specifically you, or it could be that it needs anyone and you happen to be a convenient target.”

Well, that made him feel worse.

“I don’t know anything yet, I’m just making hunches. I’ll look into it tomorrow while Hyuk’s at school, okay?” he said, trying to be of comfort.

“Yeah. Sorry, I just, today’s been really hard, you have no idea how much it loves to talk while I’m trying to find quiet.”

“Hah, I can believe it. Well, if it talks that much, maybe it’ll be dumb enough to say why it’s following you so much.”

“You realize it can hear us, right?” Ravi said nervously.

“Yeah, I know. And I hope it knows that if it ever shows its disgusting self in my house, in front of Hyuk again, I won’t hesitate to bring out the anti-demon weapons I made yesterday. I’d _ love _to test them.” he said maliciously, and squatted to the ground, looking into Ravi’s shadow.

“How’s that for a low-ranking witch, huh?” he said with pure venom in his voice. Damn, Hongbin could be really scary when he wanted. He swore he felt something under him squirm a little, though it could’ve been his imagination.

Hongbin huffed a laugh and stood up, facing Ravi again.

“I really hate to do this, but I’m gonna have to send you home. That thing doesn’t scare me, but I don’t want it here.”

Ravi sighed. “Yeah, I understand. It’s pretty dangerous.”

“I can give you some sage to burn in your house, if you want. To get rid of all the bad energy left behind.”

“Maybe, but what if I set the place on fire?”

He laughed. “Hell, you’re a way better cook than me, and my place is still standing. I trust you with fire.” he said as he handed Ravi something from his pocket. It was some dried up leaves; wait, did he keep those with him all the time?

“Alright, alright. I’ll burn your leaves. I’ll get going, though. Don’t wanna cause any more trouble.” he said as he turned to leave.

“Nah man, you’re not trouble. I just don’t have enough beds in this dang house.”

“Maybe you should get rid of some plants, to make space?” he said, making an honest suggestion. He already had an entire garden in the backyard, anyway.

“Anyone with that kind of attitude needs to get out of my house immediately.” he said jokingly as he pushed Ravi back through the house, towards the door. “I’ll text you if anything comes up, ‘kay?”

“Okay. And thanks again, Beanie.”

“No problem. What are friends for, if not to help with demon problems? I’ll see you around, man.” he said, waving as he gently shut the door.

Though it wasn’t the kind of peace Ravi expected, he always felt better after coming here.

As he went home, he tried not to think about how horribly Hyuk must think of him now. He did, however, chuckle when he noticed the demon was being quiet, except for the occasional mumble of “Blobby? Who does he think he is...” He guessed even demons cared about their appearance sometimes.

Maybe, just maybe, it would muse quietly for long enough to let him rest tonight.


	7. Chapter 7

“You’re going to help me.”

“What?” asked Ravi, incredulous.

The past few days had actually been quiet.

After their encounter with Hyuk and Hongbin, the demon had been silent for the most part; lucky for Ravi.

It had been rather restless however, and made sure to make its presence known in other ways such as repeatedly popping in and out of his shadow and “accidentally” making the blender go off at 5 in the morning. At least it had the decency not to bother him at work. This was the first time it had spoken in days.

“Well, to be honest, I _ can _take a human form.” it said, crossing its arms. Its form had gotten less chaotic in the past few days, and along with its eyes not flickering nearly as much as they used to, it now sported permanent shadowy arms and hands.

“Really? Why aren’t you in one then? Wouldn’t it be easier to move around?” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Hey, cut me some slack! I’ve haven’t taken a form in centuries.” it quipped, before clearing its throat (if it even had one) and regaining its composure. “And besides, I haven’t yet decided what I want to look like. I’m not familiar with modern human beauty standards.” it said, putting a hand against its side. “It’d be quite a problem if they’d changed since I’ve been away. I don't want to come out ugly.”

“You could just Google it.” Ravi said, uninterested. Why did it think _ he _ knew anything about beauty standards?

“_What _ did you just call me?” it said, blinking and putting a hand on its “chest” in shock.

“Er, never mind.” Right. It was surprised at photographs just a few days ago; the concept of the Internet would send it into a conniption. 

“Anyway, how am I supposed to help with that? I’m not really the right person to ask.” he said, uneasily.

“You’re the _ only _ person I can ask. Do you think I can go up to someone in this form and ask them what physical qualities humans find attractive? I don’t think so.”

True, even if someone could get past the initial shock of a shadow creature popping up in front of them, there’s no way they'd have the brainpower to think of an answer to that kind of question. It’d be a very surreal situation.

“And besides, you wouldn’t have to do much. Just take me outside every once in awhile, and we’ll go people-watching.”

“People-watching? But I’m not good at that, what if I look creepy?”

“Well, which would you prefer? Mild and temporary embarrassment, or a shadowy thing with a hundred eyes following you around for the rest of your life?” it said, twisting its body so it looked like it was tilting its head. Ravi grimaced.

Yikes. It had a point.

“Alright, fine, I’ll help you out. But don’t make me do anything weird, okay? I have a reputation to keep.” Becoming that one creepy guy that stares at people as they pass would not be a good way to start his music career, if he ever got one.

“Of course not, what do you take me for? Let’s shake on it.” it hummed, pleased with itself, and held out a shadowy hand.

Ravi stared at it with hesitation. He really didn’t want to touch that.

“What? Isn’t this what humans do? I don’t want to be ‘left hanging on’,” it said, looking more and more expectant with every passing second.

He sighed with resignation and grabbed the hand, only to end up squeezing right through it. He jumped back, and the demon giggled in amusement.

“Well then, tomorrow we’ll start our human research! Let’s do our best.” it said, clapping its hands together. It seemed genuinely excited, which was a first.

Ravi would have considered that cute, until he remembered he was thinking about a literal hellspawn, and dropped the thought like a hot rock.

* * *

The studio was quiet the next day.

It was Sunday, so several people were out and about, enjoying the beautiful weather. But not Ravi. He wanted to be absolutely sure that he finished his new song today.

He didn’t have a deadline or anything, but he kept getting interrupted while making it, and wanted to be sure to get it done before his next major project.

Nothing was going to stop him. Except, apparently, his outer demons.

“It’s evening, and you haven’t left that chair all day! You promised to help me yesterday, remember?”

He sighed. At least he’d gotten this far with minimal complaints from his officemate, but he supposed it was only a matter of time before that beautiful silence was broken.

“Just a minute. I still need to finish writing the lyrics for this stanza.”

It was the demon’s turn to sigh.

“Kim Wonshik, you’ve been sitting there and writing the entire day, and you promised to take me out today. The lighting is perfect, let’s go!”

He wasn’t sure how it could tell, since there weren’t any windows in the studio, but he decided that giving in was the most energy-efficient option. 

He slowly got up from the chair, the blood rushing to his head when he did so.

Dang, how long had it been, again? He didn’t actually remember what time he had come in that morning. He looked up to see the demon still looking at him with disapproval, like it wanted to say something else. Then, it did.

“By the way, are you trying to kill yourself? You haven’t eaten all day.” it said, as it crossed its arms and grinned. “If you really want to die though, you could just ask.”

Ravi rubbed his temples, trying to clear up the oncoming headache.

To be fair, he hadn’t even noticed that he was hungry until the demon mentioned it. Now was as good a time as any to get food.

“To _ prevent _ myself from dying,” he said, making sure the demon knew he had no intentions of letting go of life, “I guess I’ll go to that cafe around the corner. I could probably get more coffee for tonight, too.”

“Fantastic. As they say in the human world, ‘What Ever’ floats your boat.’” it sang, and returned to his shadow.

* * *

He sat down at a table outside the cafe, very close to the building’s facade.

The sun was beginning to set, and thus, his shadow began to lengthen.

As it crept up the wall behind him, the demon signaled that it was almost time to begin their research.

He was nervous.

He’d never been very good at people-watching; Hongbin always told him he was too obvious. 

The only time he really did it was when he could go somewhere high up, where he could watch people as they passed under him like ants. Being at ground-level was a little riskier, but since a powerful, probably thousands-year-old demon wanted him to do it, he couldn’t refuse, lest he get killed or something.

“Either eat that or give it to me, we’re not doing anything until you refuel.” the voice from above him said, impatiently.

He sighed and took another bite of his sandwich. Honestly, the only reason he bought it was because his shadow kept teasing him about being the only mortal that could run without food. At least he was able to get some bottles of coffee to go.

“Can you even eat? I mean, you don’t have a mouth, so.”

“Do you want to try and prove that?” it said, waiting for him to take action.

Ravi looked down at the half-eaten sandwich on his plate. He wasn’t in the mood to eat anymore, so he decided to humor it.

“Sure. How do I do it?” he asked.

“Just throw it back here, into your shadow.”

He looked at the wall, confused. Wouldn’t it just fall on the ground?

Well, he had nothing to lose, so he tossed it.

Sure enough, when he tossed it back into the wall behind him, it disappeared instantly, without leaving a mark.

“Woah! How did you-”

“Mmm, that wasn’t half bad! Though I could have done with less crust.” it said, satisfied. 

It ate it. It really ate it and didn’t leave a trace. He remained fixated on the spot where the food should have hit, his mind absolutely blown.

Did it have a mouth he didn’t know about, or did it just absorb the food into its body? This was all so surreal. Thinking about it made his brain hurt.

“People will think you strange if you keep staring at a wall, you know.” it interjected, breaking him from his trance.

It was true, people were starting to turn around and look. The sun set to an even lower angle in the sky, and Ravi’s shadow climbed above his head. It was time.

“Let’s start. Be on the lookout, okay?”

“R-right.”

The rules were simple.

The demon would point out people that it thought stood out, and Ravi would rate their attractiveness on a scale of 1-10. It would then attempt to find similarities between the people it pointed out and Ravi’s answers. To the demon, the system sounded like it would work very well in narrowing down features, but-

“She's a 10. Oh, he's a 10, too.” Ravi said to every person passing by, as the demon physically turned his head to face different people.

It seemed to be getting more and more annoyed with him with every person, as it kept turning his head harder for everyone person it told him to look at.

Finally, after several 10s and a couple 9s, it gave up.

“There's just no way!”

“No way for what?”

It sighed in exasperation. “Those people had totally different body types, skin color, facial features, I could go on, really.”

“I don't really see what you're getting at.”

“They were totally different! They can't _ all _be at the same level, it's totally impossible.”

“Why not?” he asked, legitimately confused.

“Because-” it started, but stopped, realizing it didn't actually have an ending to the argument it began.

“Is it weird or something?” said Ravi, feeling defensive.

“It’s not weird, just…unusual. I’ve never met a human without physical preferences.” it said, musing. “Usually, people just tell me what my form should look like when I ask them.”

“Huh? They do that?”

“Never mind, it’s not important. Anyway, this method isn't working, so we’re going to try something else. You had better be ready to help me again another time.” it said, in warning.

“Oookay, though I’m not sure I’ll be any help.”

“Oh please, you’re the only one I can ask, anyways.” it said. “We’ll do this tomorrow, too.”

Ravi begrudgingly agreed, threw his trash away, and walked back towards the studio. 

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

Finally, it was finished.

As he replayed the finished song over and over again, he couldn't help but revel in its completeness. Even though he'd probably hate it in the morning, he was relieved it was finally done. And he only needed one bottle of coffee this time, a new record.

It was the middle of the night, but since he was still buzzed on caffeine and had nothing else to do, he decided to head home.

He left his studio, double-checking to make sure that Ken wasn't still there. Ken usually went home early, but sometimes Ravi would walk out of the studio in the middle of the night and see him, and subsequently jump out of his skin from shock.

He wasn't here tonight, thankfully, so he headed in the direction of the door and walked out into the dark, quiet courtyard, the night wind hitting his face and ruffling his hair.

The city had a different feel at night.

During the day, the sidewalks were always teeming with people coming and going, minding their own business as they crossed paths with strangers they may never meet again. The bustling and hustling and noise, usually a huge part of the cityscape, hushed as the sun set, and silenced as the moon and stars rose in the sky.

The only sound that could be heard was the wind rushing through the buildings, the only sights were the streetlights and neon signs of the few stores brave enough to stay open for 24 hours.

The atmosphere was peaceful and inspiring, but it also felt like something could jump out at any moment. If not for that, and the possibility of being mugged, Ravi would willingly walk around at night more often. 

As he walked past closed stores, including the cafe he went to earlier, he checked his phone for the first time all day. There were several new messages from Hongbin, which was quite a rare event, since he almost never double-texted, even in emergencies.

_ -I think I found out why that hellspawn won’t stop following you. It took some digging, but there’s something I found in a book called a blood bond. _

_ -It’s like a pre-contract contract. It weakly binds the demon to your soul, so it can know your location. It’s not permanent, though. Since you unsealed it with blood a few days ago, it should last until the next lunar cycle. _

_ -What I don’t know is why it wants a contract so badly. Technically, it can still do whatever the hell it wants. Will look into it tomorrow. _

Wow, he had really found out a lot. It had taken a few days, but it looked like Hongbin had figured out what was going on, relatively. 

From what little he knew about demons, a blood bond made sense. Ravi’s blood had unsealed the demon, after all. Even though Hongbin had only found a little info, anything to help put the pieces together was useful. He typed out a quick reply.

_ -thnx lots, Bean, ur tha best. whens the nxt cycl? _

Surprisingly, he got a fast reply.

-_ *U’r. _

He frowned. His text must have woken Hongbin up; he wasn’t usually _ this _ salty.

The next reply was more helpful.

_ -About 25 days. Don’t do anything now, we still don’t know what we’re dealing with. _

_ -i won't _

_ -And go to sleep, dammit. _

_ -k _

He sighed and put away his phone. Of course he knew not to do anything. He might have been a pushover, but he wasn’t stupid. He wouldn’t trust his soul with a creature thing he hardly knew.

As he strolled past another 24 hour convenience store, he felt a tug on his leg and jumped at least 5 feet in the opposite direction.

“Hey, what is that? That sign?” a voice from below asked, curiously.

Ravi caught his breath from the sudden scare and looked at what his shadow was pointing at.

It was a sign, showing a picture of a boy band. What was their name again? Gun Train? Bullet Engine? They had gotten pretty popular recently. Either way, the sign was advertising that idol magazines were half-off.

“Aren’t idols those things that people worship? But these are humans too, aren’t they?” it asked.

“Kinda? Idols are like, celebrities that sing and dance. People don’t really worship them as much as support them.” he said.

“Ooh, this will be very helpful, then! Let’s go!” it said cheerfully.

Before Ravi could even protest, he felt himself being pulled into the store by his leg.

He looked so shaken up when he entered that the cashier and another customer looked at him strangely for a moment before resuming their conversation.

As he smiled sheepishly at the cashier, he felt himself being pulled towards the magazine racks. He gave up resisting and decided to walk there himself.

“What are we doing here? I gotta go home.” he whispered, with a hint of irritation in his voice.

“These “idols” must be at the peak of beauty if people are willing to make giant photographs of them, it's perfect research material! Now start reading.” it whispered back, harshly.

“Huh? People don’t make- Wait, no way, I'm not into this stuff. Do it yourself.” he quipped.

At that, it popped out of his shadow without a hint of hesitation, and peered over his shoulder.

“In case you've forgotten, I can't just stand here all night, someone will come by. Plus, you'd only have to look at the pictures.” it said, drumming on his shoulder.

Ravi jumped back in surprise, nearly knocking over the magazine shelf behind him. He caught it, and his breath.

“Y-you can't be out here, what if you get caught?”

“Oh please, it'll be fine. It's the wee hours, people will simply think they're hallucinating.” it said with a surprising amount of confidence for a statement so stupi- um, unorthodox. “Now, take these and start flipping.” it said, hanging him a huge stack of magazines that it picked at random.

He groaned and started flipping through the first magazine on the pile.

It was a magazine for up and coming ballad singers. His interest was piqued, and he started flipping through to see if Ken was in it.

Sure enough, he was, in a very large picture. He looked great in real life, but seeing him with his hair done and with styled clothes was...breathtaking. He couldn't stop himself from staring. He wondered what Ken was doing right now?

“Hey. I already know you think _ that _ one's attractive, so we can move on.”

He jumped, and shut the magazine. “No no no, nothing like that! I just, uh, got distracted, is all, thinking about other things?” he stammered, struggling to put it back on the shelf.

“Right, well, I just want you to know that I won't become anyone’s doppelganger. Unless, of course, you want them to die~” it said, grinning sweetly.

“NO! No way!!” 

Just the thought of Ken dying was horrific; there was no way he'd wish for something like that, not in a million years.

“I'm only kidding,” it giggled. “Keep it down though, you don't want to bring attention to yourself, you know.”

This creature was far too morbid for his own tastes.

Ravi grumbled something about the demon being the one drawing attention, and picked up the next magazine. 

It was a girl group magazine. He wasn’t too interested in girl groups for their music, but he did think the outfits (and girls) looked cute. He flipped through carefully, looking at each image with care.

The demon did a fake yawn, and tugged at his pant leg.

“Hm, at this rate, we’ll be here all night. We should buy these and leave for the night.” it said, tapping where its chin might have been.

“Buy them? With what money?” he scoffed. At this, the demon disappeared into his shadow and stayed silent. Good, maybe it decided to give up.

He started putting away the magazines, making sure to save the ballad one. He swore to himself that he just wanted to read the article. He was about done putting them away, when suddenly-

“_ This _ money.” it said, popping out of his shadow with a wallet in hand.

“What the- whose wallet is that?!” he burst out, horrified.

It hummed happily, flipping through the wallet. It was stuffed full of cash.

“Well, it's _ certainly _ not yours.”

He snatched the wallet out of the demon’s hand.

“Wha- no. Put this back, right now. We're _ not _ stealing money, and we're _ not _staying here any longer.” he growled, “I don’t know what constitutes as alright in your world, but in mine, we don’t break the law.” He put the wallet back in the demon’s hands, slowly.

It blinked, surprised at his assertiveness, and grunted.

“Fine.” it huffed and re-entered the shadows, to hopefully return the wallet to its rightful owner.

Ravi sighed, looked back at the rack, and grabbed a few magazines to buy. He figured he could compromise; the magazines would probably keep the demon busy for awhile, and plus, there was no use in making it angry.

He felt in his pocket, wondering if the charm Hongbin gave him was really working, when it re-appeared, looking miffed.

“Well, like you said, there's no use in staying here any longer. Let's go.” it said, going into his shadow again.

Guess it was mad at him already, whoops. This whole ordeal had made him really tired; he wanted to go home and sleep.

Perhaps this time the blender wouldn't go off in the middle of the night, though he doubted he’d get any mercy after this.

At this point, if it did decide to disturb his rest, he would throw a magazine at it and put in some earplugs.

He felt the charm in his pocket, again.

Iron will, baby.

* * *

He had really thought the magazines would keep it busy; and in some ways, he was right. However, he didn't think busy-ness could be so loud.

“Oh my gosh, look at these, Kim Wonshik! See? They're dressed like vampires, how funny is that!” it squealed, slipping the magazine on his desk and pointing excitedly to a picture of a boy band’s new concept.

“Uh, yeah, I guess it is pretty weird.”

“And, and, look at these! They have fruits on their head, are they trying to spoil their food?” it giggled, this time pointing to a girl group with very colorful, fruity outfits. It seemed like they were doing a sweets concept.

He massaged his temples.

The demon had spread out the magazines around it in what comically looked like a summoning circle, and was flipping through each of them, one page at a time, while moving in a circle. It seemed to really be enjoying itself, which would be fantastic if it didn't have an outburst every time it found something new about every ten seconds.

Just as he thought he was about to go insane, he heard the door click open.

“Hi hi Ravi, can I come in?” It was Ken. Ravi whipped his head around so quickly that an owl would be jealous. Oh no.

“Wooow, I didn't know you were into this kind of stuff!” he said, picking up a cute, pink magazine filled with pictures of girl groups.

“Ah, n-no, it's not what you think! I just-” he spluttered. 

He wanted to hide. This was the worst possible thing.

The demon was gone, but it had left the magazines exactly where they were, making it look like Ravi was trying to summon someone to help his fashion sense. Or worse, like he was slacking off.

“Ooooh, I know! You're doing research, aren't you? Sneaky, sneaky!” he said, waving a finger.

“Research?”

“Yeah! I see what you're doing, you sly guy. You're looking at other groups to try and get more inspiration for your songs!” he said brightly.

What?

“Uhhh, yeah! Th-that’s...exactly right!” he said not-so-convincingly.

“Wow, you’re so committed! I could really learn a thing or two from you, huh?”

Ravi made a choking noise, and his face turned red as a tomato.

He hoped Ken would never figure out the real reason behind the magazines on the ground, just so this compliment could remain genuine in his mind. 

“Oh yeah, I came in ‘cause I heard this weird voice, but I guess it was my imagination, right?”

“O-oh yeah, totally. No one else but me here, yep! Just me...” he needed Ken to leave before he passed out in here. He was an awful liar, and didn’t need anyone else knowing about his new officemate.

“I think I came in for something else too, but I forgot what it was. Anyway, keep working hard!” he said, and waved, walking out the door with a smile. 

Ravi felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest; that was way too close for comfort.

Still, he hadn’t been complimented like that in awhile; he felt like he was going to melt in happiness. Ah, he wished he had the courage to say things like that to Ken, too. He had a lot to say...

“You can thank me later~” a sly voice said as it popped out of Ravi’s shadow and closed the door again.

He snapped himself out of his daze and sat up straight in his chair. “Clean up after yourself next time.” he huffed, whipping around to face the computer again.

Ken had a point though, researching other groups wasn’t a bad idea, since he didn’t know when his next project was going to come in.

“And by later, I do mean later. We’re going people-watching again today.” it said.

“Really? But it didn’t work last time, what’ll make this time different?” he asked.

“I think I’ll keep it a surprise. But I want to look through these first.” it said, rushing right back to the magazines and re-starting its ritual of turning a page, going to the next magazine, repeat.

Ravi supposed, as he slipped on headphones to avoid the grating sound of pages flipping, that it could be worse.

* * *

Ravi arrived at the little table outside the cafe just minutes before sunset, like he did the day before.

He wasn’t particularly excited about this session, considering the last one ended in failure. The sun wasn’t at the right angle yet, so he talked with the demon to pass the time.

“So, how will today be different from yesterday? I’m curious.” he said.

“Well, while I was looking at the magazines today, I realized. Attractiveness is important, but so are first impressions. Humans can often get a good idea of what another is like from looking at their face. That’s where you come in.”

“So you want me to tell you what I think of people based on their face? I dunno, Hongbin tells me I’m not the best judge of character.” he said, unsure of himself. He also really didn’t like making assumptions about other people just from how they looked.

“Like I said, you’re the only person I can ask, so anything you say is good enough for me.” it said with confidence. “Besides, I want to give off a good first impression to everyone, including you, Kim Wonshik.”

Though he was a little touched, he sighed. “Would you please stop calling me by my full name? It’s getting really weird.”

He could feel its eyes on his back. “But that _ is _your name, isn’t it? My ears are never wrong.”

“Well, yeah, but I kinda go by Ravi now. It's just...less embarrassing, I guess.” Though he supposed going by a stage name was a little embarrassing, too.

“I'll think about it.” it said flatly.

Well, it was better than a ‘no.’

“Now that I think about it, you never told me your name. What do I call you?” he asked, turning around to face the wall. 

“My name is...classified information.” it said, squirming a little inside the shadow.

Ravi turned around and paused as if deep in thought.

“That's kind of a weird name, should I call you Class for short?”

He could practically feel the demon roll every one of its eyes and stare back at him in utter disgust.

“Dear heavens, it means I can't tell you my real name for safety reasons. Haven’t you ever heard the word ‘classified’ before? Mortals must be getting dumber.” it mumbled.

“So am I supposed to keep calling you ‘the demon’ then? That's kinda weird.” said Ravi, completely oblivious to “the demon’s” insult.

“Well, whoever makes a contract with me will officially give me a name, but you may give me a temporary one, if you wish.” it said, passively.

“Are you sure you want me to do that? I'm uh, really bad at names. Besides, are you like a guy, or a girl, or...?”

“Neither. Or both. I like to change up my forms every once in awhile, though I haven't quite decided what this one should look like. You can also decide the name after I decide a form, of course.”

Great, more pressure. He decided that he should think for a really long time about this name, even if it was temporary, lest he end up cursed.

“It's time to start, are you ready?” it said, watching the sun set to an angle that caused Ravi's shadow to climb above his head.

“Yeah.” he said, looking out towards the street again.

“Alright then, tell me what you see.”

His eyes caught on a pale, chubby girl with glasses, wearing lots of makeup and a pretty sundress. She was gorgeous, but that wasn't why he was looking today. She seemed to be waiting for something or someone, as she kept checking her phone and tapping her foot impatiently.

“She looks like she's waiting for someone. Maybe her boyfriend, since she's dressed up so nice.”

“No, not that. What kind of person does she look like? In personality?”

He leaned forward a little more, squinting to get a better look.

“Uh, she seems like a nice person, I guess? Though she looks impatient. She seems pretty confident too, though I guess that's just me.”

“Ooh, I see. Not bad at all. Then, what about that one?”

It pointed him in the direction of a peppy-looking girl with braids, jotting notes down on her notepad as she saw people walking by. She looked like she was wiggling around, trying to contain some kind of emotion.

Maybe she was people-watching, like Ravi. She also occasionally took out her camera and snapped a photo. Wait, was that legal?

“I think she’s uh, very passionate. She looks like she’s on a mission or something. Maybe she’s a reporter.”

“But what is her first impression?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to get involved with her. Media people are dangerous, especially in the music world.”

“I see, so occupation makes a difference as well. Oh, who’s that guy?”

Ravi turned to look at the guy the demon was talking about. He looked awfully shady, wearing sunglasses when it was getting dark. He kept looking around shiftily, too, his head turning when he did so.

“Dunno, never seen him before.” he said, taking a closer look at the man.

“What do you think of him?” the demon asked.

“I’m not sure. What do you think?”

“What do _ I _think? Why on earth would you be interested in something like that?” it burst out.

“I dunno, I think it’d be interesting to hear what you have to say.”

It paused for a second, as if surprised, and then came out of the shadow just a bit to get a closer look, putting its hands on Ravi’s shoulders.

“I’d say he’s hiding from something. I’m not sure what, but his attire and his actions show that very prominently. He may be a criminal or part of a crime ring, but he’s being too obvious about being discreet. Perhaps he’s a celebrity?” it pondered.

“Wow, that’s really something. I didn’t even think of that.” he said, amazed.

“Well, of course! I _ have _been observing people for ages now.” it said, maintaining its cool, but only mostly.

Sure enough, it was right about one thing. As the man approached the girl in the sundress, the peppy-looking girl rushed over and started talking to the man. He must have been a celebrity, and she was on a stakeout.

He looked extremely flustered, so the girl, maybe his girlfriend, stepped in. Then, as the peppy girl directed a question towards the girlfriend, she became angry, and...

“Woah, she’s going for the first blow!” he whispered to himself to keep his volume low, and nearly fell out of his seat.

Sure enough, it escalated into a fight before the man grabbed the girlfriend’s hand and ran, weaving through the crowd as the angry reporter followed after them.

Did that really just happen? It was amazing what a guy could see just by sitting on the sidewalk for a few minutes.

“Ooh, this is more interesting than I thought! Let’s follow them, c’mon!” said the demon, cackling and nearly pulling Ravi from his seat.

“No way, I am _ not _ getting involved.” he said, keeping a firm grip on his chair. If there was one thing he knew about women, it was to never interfere when they got angry. Despite what his demon might think, he wanted to stay alive long enough to debut.

“Okay Mr. Boring, I’ll go after them. See you later!” it said excitedly as it zoomed into his shadow on the ground and then out of it, supposedly racing through the streets where he couldn’t see.

It appeared to like stirring up drama; he’d have to make sure he didn’t accidentally let it loose in the company building.

Though he didn’t want to admit it, he’d had fun today.

People-watching was something he rarely thought of doing with all the time he spent in the studio, and it was good to get out of the office every once in awhile. And the magazines got him a genuine compliment from Ken.

He considered thanking the demon, though it went against his common sense.

It was getting late, though. He didn’t want the thing to cause trouble, but he didn’t want to stay out any longer, either.

He pulled out his phone to check the time out of habit, and found a new message from Hongbin. He opened it up.

_ This is _ way _ too many seals for one demon. Something’s up. Don’t drop your guard. _

It seemed like it was too early for his worries to cease.


	8. Interlude 2

Hongbin sat alone in the darkness of his basement, puzzling and puzzling. 

Puzzling a puzzle, in fact, in the form of the pot Ravi dropped off at his house. He could have just put it together using regenerative magic, but where was the fun in that?

Besides, the spell would take much less energy if the pieces were put in their proper places before he sealed the cracks. He knew this from many years of experience breaking flower pots and being too cheap and too desperate to re-home his plants to buy new ones; but this piece of pottery was different.

Putting it together was notably exciting, and not just because he liked to put things together; it was ancient enough that he felt like if he finished it quickly and perfectly, he would meet a genie and be granted a wish, or something.

He picked up a particular shard, and thought of the shadow demons, remembering that the “genie” had already left this vessel. Good riddance.

The most complicated thing about putting this particular pot together was that it possessed a great number of seals before it was broken.

The magical properties of most of the seals had worn off, but a great many of the stickers that contained them had torn from when the pot hit the ground, so they had to be replicated from scratch.

Hongbin rated his artistic talents at about a 6 out of 10, but his seal-making abilities were no less than perfect. They had to be, or else any seal he created would be nothing more than a piece of paper with scribbles.

None of his seals had to  _ work _ for the previous owner to take it back without complaints, but he figured this was a good way to practice. Just in case.

“If only seals didn’t take so damn long. Then maybe I’d actually enjoy this.” he grumbled, preparing the ink well to replicate yet another seal.

Truthfully, he’d wanted to use a little of his scarcely-given spare time to engineer a way to water all of his plants at once, but Ravi had worse, more supernatural problems, so he didn’t mind putting this at a priority. 

Right. Ravi was the reason he was in this mess. How on earth does someone accidentally summon a demon, he wondered. 

He looked at a blood-stained sticker, and realized. Ravi let his blood get on the biggest, most important seal.

He sighed, in unsurprised disappointment, and went back to work.

Between running his business, poring over books about demons in his personal library, and working to keep his friend out of a life in jail, Hongbin had his hands full. 

Against his better nature, he thanked the stars that Hyuk had gone home so he wouldn’t have anything else to worry about at the moment.

He had earlier insisted that Hyuk stay with him until his eye healed, but Hyuk insisted that he get home before his parents called the police, or something. It was sound reasoning, but he couldn’t help but worry.

His ink brush slipped.

He cursed and cut out another perfect circle, to make another attempt at recreating the seal. Since it was the one Ravi’s blood had gotten on, it was imperative that it be perfect, which also made it extremely difficult to replicate. 

Reading runes wasn’t his forte, but he could read simple things. Many seals had words like “shadow” and “darkness” on them to specify exactly what they were supposed to seal; others had names of the deadly sins. He knew what those were in runes, it was practically common knowledge for every witch. Pride was the most common; not that he was surprised based on his short encounters with the thing.

This one, however, was much more complicated. It had several words written in complex characters, unlike the runes he was used to seeing.

He squinted, knowing that there was no way he knew the stroke order for these, so he decided to wing it and hope for the best.

He accidentally made the tail of one character so long that it cut into another.

He grumbled.

Time to try again.

As he cut out yet  _ another  _ perfect circle, he thought of the demon that came out of this pot, and shuddered.

The truth was, he wasn’t recreating the seals only for practice. If that demon became too big of a threat or too much of a nuisance, he’d have a way to seal it off again. If he could find another vessel, that is.

He sighed. Why did Ravi have to get himself into this mess? He’d always had historically bad luck, but this was the worst thing that could have happened to him at this moment.

Nowadays, witches and demons went together like ice cream and ketchup.

Witches used to summon them regularly, and even used them as familiars in ancient times, but ever since a certain incident 500 years ago, just one mention of a demon was enough to twist even the most high-ranked witch’s panties into a tight, undoable knot. 

Since then, it became common knowledge for witches to learn how to make anti-demon weapons, and the art of sealing became part of basic witch curriculum rather than higher education, as it used to be.

Witches were also barred from summoning demons, and even from interacting with them unless they wanted risk banishment or another dire punishment. So said the Modern Day Witch Association, or the MDWA for short.

But the Association could suck it as far as Hongbin cared.

No one chooses their friends, and they sure as hell can’t choose what situations their friends get themselves into.

On the final stroke, he accidentally set the brush down too hard and made a giant black mark on the seal.

“Why are there so  _ many _ ?!” he yelled, slamming his hands on the table, and knocking over his inkwell.

He laid his forehead on a dry part of the desk, his eyes looking down to the ground where piles of books on demons lay for him to look at later. He swore he’d gone through them more than ten times already, they were so heavily dog-eared. He wanted to find out as much as possible, but it was difficult when the MDWA had outright stopped making books with such subject material years ago. Any books he could find on them now were unsettlingly vague and not entirely useful.

Now that he thought about it, it had been a while since he’d slept.

As the desk made a divet in his forehead, he figured that he should do that now since he was already slumped over…

Or he was about to, until he heard a knock on the tiny window above him, making him jump out of his chair and his skin.

“Oh sorry, am I bothering you?” said a familiar voice, thick with an English accent.

“Marin? ‘S that you?” he said, squinting into the tiny window, looking for his witch friend.

Sure enough, there she was, freckles and all, lying sideways on his front yard to look inside the basement.

“Of course it is! Have you forgotten? It’s Monday, already.” she said, pulling a picnic basket to the window and pointing at it.

“Ah, right. I’ll let you in through the front.” he said, and walked upstairs to the front door.

Marin was a witch that specialized in baking. She and her twin sister, Karin, owned a bakery that baked magic sweets. Eating these sweets helped people become more friendly, have a better love life, gain luck, etc, because of the magic infused in the batter. The effects were up to what the owners felt like on a daily basis, though some effects were more in demand than others on a daily basis.

Marin was Hongbin’s only friend in the Witch Association, and every Monday they’d get together and have tea and cakes, a collaborative effort, out in the garden.

It was one of the few rituals that they both kept up in their busy lives, and Hongbin was slightly embarrassed for forgetting about it. Still, he’d had a lot on his plate lately.

“Did you have to dress so...traditionally?” he asked, eyeing her long black witch robes and hat as he took her broom and put it in the hall closet.

“Just because  _ someone  _ isn’t proud of their profession doesn’t mean I can’t be, too. Besides, this  _ is  _ technically a witch gathering.” she said, brushing nonexistent wrinkles out of her robes. He shouldn’t have been surprised. She hardly went anywhere dressed like anything else.

Besides her witch robes, the only things that stood out about her were her super short brown hair and one large, golden star earring that always dangled from her right ear. Karin called her and Hongbin the no-fashion friends, since Hongbin also almost always wore his robes.

“By the by, why haven’t you been attending the meetings lately? You know I get so dreadfully bored without you.”

“You know exactly why I don’t go to those.” he said, grimacing.

It was hard being handsome and magical when most witches were female, straight, and _very _interested in finding a spouse with magic in his blood. Thanks to that, most meetings were very uncomfortable.

“True, I’m almost a little jealous. I wish they’d look at me like that sometimes, too.” she said wistfully, pouting a little. “Though we both know what happened the last time we tried disguise magic.”

Oh, he knew. Witches did  _ not _ enjoy being tricked, and were very adept at undoing each other’s magic when it was cosmetic. He shuddered at the memory of the two of them running from an angry mob of scorned magic-users on Valentine’s Day.

“Where’s Karin? Is she not coming today?” he said quickly, trying to change the topic.

“She couldn’t make it today. Came down with a bug, though she said she  _ really  _ wished she could come.” she said, unbuckling her shoes.

He tried to hide his relief.

Karin was, unlike her sister, interested in him romantically. Though he had to give her credit, she was at least respectful about it. She was one of the few in the Association, besides Marin, that he trusted with his address.

“Have you already made the tea? Or should I make it myself?” she asked, heading towards the back porch.

“Oh. Ah, I haven’t made it yet. Sit tight, I’ll bring it out.” he said, scrambling to put stuff away, and rushed to the kitchen.

* * *

“Hey, these aren’t bad. What’d you put in them?” he asked, munching on a pastry from the picnic basket.

“Moths.” she said, not batting an eye.

Hongbin squinted at her, making sure his face showed just how hard he was judging her. After a few seconds, she started to laugh.

“Oh come on, you need to learn to take a joke! I’d never put insects in  _ my _ pastries!”

“Well, that’s good. Sometimes I can’t tell when you’re joking.” he said, taking another bite.

“I did put in some MSG, though.”

He choked on crumbs and looked at her with horror. “In a dessert?!” he coughed.

“I’m just kidding! Come on, you’re so easy to mess with!” she said, grinning.

He swallowed the pastry and chugged some tea, making sure he didn’t choke again. When he’d finished his cup, he set it back down on the table, making a clinking sound.

“You’d love Ravi, then. He’ll believe everything you tell him.”

“I’m sure I would,  _ if  _ you’ll ever introduce me.” she said, crossing her arms.

Even though he was the one that mentioned Ravi’s name, Hongbin became anxious, thinking about what his friend must be going through right now. He was okay, right?

Not many people had the misfortune of getting stuck with a sealed demon. He was probably safe right now because of the blood bond, but even that was iffy.

If the demon found someone else to contract with before it was up, there was no guarantee of anyone’s safety. He hoped and prayed he’d be able to figure out a way to deal with it before the bond wore off, or else…

“Are you alright? You’re quite pale, you know.” she said, breaking his worried trance.

“Uh yeah, I’m fine. No need to worry.”

“Are you sure? Because you look as if you haven’t slept in ages. Are you working on something? I saw a broken thing in the basement.”

Shoot, she’d seen it.

There was no easy way to back out of this one; Marin was as sharp as they came. He’d have to make up something and roll with it, fast.

“It’s historical restoration.” he said smoothly.

“Ooh, that sounds exciting! What are you working on?” she said, voice coated with pure glee.

Shoot. He should’ve known she’d be into it. Marin was into anything ancient, and excelled in all of her magical history classes.

“It’s actually pretty interesting. There was this uh, possession vessel that got broken years ago, and since it’s got a lot of seals on it, they want me to fix the pot and re-do the seals.”

“Really? How fascinating! May I see it? I could help, even!” she said, her eyes beginning to sparkle.

“Uh, sure. But I don’t need help, really.” he said, suddenly taking great interest in a leaf being blown across the porch.

He’d already fixed the outside of the pot, and the seals looked their age, so he didn’t need to hide the fact that the break had been made only a few short days ago.

He figured it wouldn’t hurt to have her take a look at it, if only to get her to leave him alone.

He took her inside and led her down to the basement, careful to check that the books on demons were nestled safely under the desk, and out of sight.

When they got downstairs, Marin rushed to the desk, only to grimace when she saw Hongbin’s little project.

“So this is what you’re restoring, hm? It’s rather ugly, if I may say so.” she said, looking at the pot up and down, as if it were personally offensive to her.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t choose this project.” he mumbled.

“I can definitely see what you mean about all the seals. It looks like some have even been torn completely! Must have happened when it hit the ground. Although…” she trailed off as she examined the pot a little closer, turning her head to view it from all angles so she didn’t disturb the artifact.

“What? What is it?”

“Well, I sure hope whatever was in here got swiftly taken care of, because this is entirely too many seals for one being. If it was just for one.” she said critically.

Hongbin felt his heart drop and his breath catch as she said that. Surely she was kidding, right?

“Wh-what do you mean?” he asked cautiously.

“You don’t know? You’re really only supposed to use one seal when sealing something off, which would’ve been this one right here.” she said as she pointed to the largest seal on the pot, the one Hongbin was trying desperately to replicate earlier. “But on this one vessel, there are so many. And there are even some in a different language than the originals, if you’ll look here.” she said, pointing at one of the rectangular tags. 

She was right, the rectangular tags looked relatively newer than the circle-shaped seals, and had a different style of runes, almost as if they were in another language. Hongbin gulped.

“S-so, what would happen, hypothetically, if whatever was in there wasn’t ah, taken care of swiftly?” he said, sweating nervously.

“Well I’m not sure, exactly. I have no idea how long these seals were supposed to last, since we don’t know when the demon broke out. But if these seals were meant to last a very long time, as they look, then the worst case scenario is...well, there would be quite a catastrophe. Maybe even the world as we know it would be in danger. At least, that’s my uninformed opin-are you alright?” she said, turning back around towards Hongbin, holding her hands out as if to catch him. 

He was most certainly _not _alright. How alright could a person be after learning that the world could end if they couldn’t fix things fast enough? He blinked, trying to convince himself that this was all just a figment of his imagination, but failed.

This wasn’t supposed to happen, none of this was supposed to happen.

How could he possibly stop something that powerful? He felt like crying, throwing up, and fainting all at once. And if he didn’t get out of that room immediately, two of the three were about to happen. But he couldn’t move. He was frozen.

“Pull yourself together! Hongbin, are you listening to me!” a familiar voice from far away rang out. It was no use, he felt his consciousness slipping, slipping….

* * *

He woke up to the feeling of blankets over his robes and the rays of sunset filtering through the blinds. He rubbed his eyes, trying to figure out when he’d decided to take a nap, and then it hit him. 

“Oh God, Ravi...”

He scrambled and pulled out his phone to send a text to him, warning him to be careful. 

It was all he could do, really, in this state of mind.

He mournfully sighed.

He’d definitely have to do something about that demon, starting with figuring out what it and its seals were made of. As he pulled off his blankets to go downstairs, he found a note on his bedside table. It was from Marin.

_ Cut back on the take out, please, you’re at least 1,000 kilos! I’ve made some food for you downstairs, don’t let it get cold. P.S. Sorry for sticking my nose into your project, but you seem so stressed about it! I can translate the runes, so I’ll help you out as much as I can. Just call me, please. _

_ -Marin _

As hard as he tried to hold back his tears, it was futile. They flowed down his face like rivers that had just gotten released from their dams.

There really was only so much he could do by himself, but- he couldn’t rely on anyone else just yet. Not until he figured out a plan for fixing things.

He just hoped Ravi would be alright in the meantime..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! As always, thank you so much for reading this far~  
I know I said I would upload a chapter with every interlude, but I've been a lot more scrutinous about my writing/editing lately, and the next chapter is taking me quite a bit of time to edit.  
So it will be up within the next few days! Thanks for being patient, I'm trying my best to improve as a writer, and I hope you all continue to enjoy this story ^u^


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello hello! Thank you all for being patient, the new chapter is here~  
Although it's about the same length as the others, I think a lot more happened in this one, so I wanted to be sure it was good/readable.  
Enjoy~

Ravi didn’t expect much when he woke up in the morning to use the bathroom.

He didn’t expect anything as he fanned away the remaining fog of sleepiness that overcame him. Why did people always wake up tired even when they got sleep? That was one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

As he pondered this question, he stumbled into something, causing him to lose his balance and grab onto the counter.

A strange man was passed out on his bathroom floor.

He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Then, when nothing looked different, he panicked.

He didn’t remember bringing anyone over last night, and he sure didn’t know anyone that resembled the man on the ground.

How did he get there? Was he okay? Was he...dead?

These questions and more filled his head as he shook the man in a blind panic.

“Wake up! Who are you? Are you alive?” he cried desperately, violently shaking the stranger’s shoulders.

“Mm, just a couple more years..” the stranger mumbled, rolling on his side away from Ravi’s hands. A couple more years? Was he in a coma?

“Wake up, please! I-I’m gonna call 911, okay?” he said desperately, his hands shaking as he fumbled for his phone. Calling an emergency number was what people were supposed to do in this situation, right? Right?

Suddenly, the man sat up groggily, and rubbed at his eyes.

“Kim Ravi? What is with all the noise?” he said, and yawned into his hand.

Ravi abruptly stopped his fingers at the keypad. He had never seen a comatose person just wake up like that. He briefly considered calling 911 just to help him with the heart attack he was about to have, but realized he had more pressing questions. 

“How do you know my name?” he said, hesitantly.

Did he have a stalker? He wasn’t even famous yet. Even so, how could a stalker get into his bathroom? His apartment was on the 15th floor, he couldn’t have crawled through the window. Then again, he’d heard enough horror stories of  _ very  _ dedicated fans that he didn’t immediately discard the possibility.

“You told me the other day. It’s me. You know,  _ me. _ ” he said, aggressively pointing to his face like he expected Ravi to know who he was.

Ravi knew was horrible with names, but he was certain that he’d never forget a face. This one was definitely new, and demanding as well. Of course he’d be confused.

“Y-yeah, you. Of course.” he said, though utterly failing to hide his confusion.

The man sighed and rolled his eyes. “It’s me, the demon you released about a week ago? The one who was working on a human form?” he said, and tapped on his head, gesturing for Ravi to use his brain.

Ravi thought back to the last time he had seen the demon.

It was late last night, and they had said good night to each other before he went to bed.

In the middle of the night, he was woken up by a strong surge of paranoia and went to the bathroom.

When he opened the door and turned on the light, the very form of his nightmares knelt before him.

A black shadowy figure, vaguely human-shaped with black smoke flowing in wisps off its body, was crouched beneath him, looking like it was in immense pain.

As his eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat, he saw several small eyes appear on the side of its body that faced him, opening widely in his presence.

Ravi broke out in a cold sweat and tried to scream, but nothing came out. He backed away slowly, very slowly from the creature in front of him.

Then, in a voice that echoed with a cacophony of sounds in all pitches all trying to fight each other, it rasped, 

**“Get out.”**

After that, all he remembered was paralyzing fear.

He shuddered, wishing he’d left that memory buried deep within the realm of all his surreal night experiences. The rest of the memory was fuzzy after that, so fuzzy that he could have (and wished he could have) mistaken it all for a nightmare.

But it did explain why there was a stranger passed out on his bathroom floor.

“So, that’s your human form, huh?” he asked hesitantly as he sized it, now a him, up.

He was still sitting, so he couldn’t see all of him, but he could tell just by looking at his face that the demon had really done its research.

His facial features looked like a perfect mix of everything they’d seen when they went people-watching and looked through idol magazines, yet somehow managed to look completely unique.

His eyes were small and brownish-black with visible tear bags underneath, simultaneously looking cheerful and like they could cut to the very core of steel nerves in an instant.

His skin, which stood out to Ravi because of its rich color, looked like the color that would result from mixing cinnamon and honey together. His face was diamond-shaped, thought it became a little rounder as he smirked playfully, looking with an expectant expression as he let himself be looked at.

His clothes were simple; it seemed his human form came with a default outfit; a black shirt patterned with red glitter eyes and black jeans with fake diamonds studding the pockets. Even though they had no doubt just come into existence, they looked like they had been ironed.

Ravi was impressed and yet extremely conflicted.

He was seriously attractive, there was no doubt about that, but this gorgeous man used to be the shadowy, misty, eyeball creature with a morbid sense of humor that followed him around in his shadow. As such, Ravi had no idea how to feel about this new development.

“Well, what do you think? Isn’t it impressive? I spent a lot of time on it, so I expect a lot of compliments.” he said proudly, twisting himself a little to show Ravi different angles while still sitting down. Though truthfully, that killed his urge to give the demon any sort of compliments. He couldn’t lie to him, though.

“Yeah, you look great, actually. Though, why did you decide to look like that specifically?” he asked.

“Well, a handsome guy needs a handsome friend, right?” he said, winking. Ravi had no idea which person was supposed to be the handsome guy and which was the handsome friend from the way he said it. “And besides, it would seem too suspicious if a beautiful  _ girl _ suddenly seemed to take an interest in you, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, I guess so- hey, that’s not nice!” he said, crossing his arms as the demon laughed, a strangely warm and bubbly sound for a creature of Hell.

“By the way, how about that name? A nameless human is very rare and unusual, after all.” he said, tilting his head.

Ravi realizing that he hadn't thought about it at all, tried to think of something, anything.

“How about...Shadow?”

The demon made a sound of rejection, like a buzzer on a gameshow. “I'm not a dog. Try again.”

“I'm really not good at names, maybe you should get one from someone else.” he said, nervously.

“What makes you say that? Shadow may be an awful name for a human, but it’s an obvious choice.” he said, crossing his arms.

“I uh, I named my parents’ dog.”

“And?”

“His name is Butt.”

The demon slowly opened and closed its two eyes, as if to make them understand what he was really hearing.

“You've  _ got _ to be kidding.” he choked. “You were young, right?”

“It's...short for Bada$$.” he said sheepishly, trying to hide how his face flushed.

“No way.” said the demon, eyes wide, looking shocked  _ and _ appalled, probably at the fact that Ravi could actually pronounce those dollar signs.

“Yeah. But that doesn’t mean he’s any less cute!” he said, and quickly pulled up some pictures of the little dog. “See? There's little Butt-butt with some friends!” he gushed, pointing excitedly at a small white dog in the mix of a few other puppies.

“The poor creature..” he said, expressing pity for perhaps the first time since he was released. “I suppose a rose by any other name-well, I suppose we can wait on it, since I don't want to be named inappropriately. You'd better think hard about it, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” he said, pushed himself off the ground, and headed for the door. When he noticed the demon hadn't moved from his spot on the ground, he stopped in the doorway. “You're not gonna stay on the floor, right?”

“Of course not, I don’t plan on living my life on your dirty floor. Just let me get up.” he said, put his feet on the ground, and pushed off of the toilet, only to fall backwards immediately.

“Are you alri-”

“Yes, yes, I'm absolutely fine.” he said, and gave it a second attempt, making sure to hold firmly onto whatever would support him. When he finally climbed up to the level of the counter, in a full standing position, his knees quivered and shook, reminding Ravi of a newborn lamb trying to stand for the first time.

“Uh...are you gonna be okay?” he asked, concerned. He'd never seen anyone make standing look this difficult. Ravi almost marveled at the fact that he could do it so easily, himself.

“Of course I will, this is totally normal!”

He tried to move one of his legs to take a step forward. As he did, his other leg shook so much that it collapsed under him. He would have fallen to the ground had it not been for his hands firmly gripping the countertop.

Ravi was immediately shaken into action. He positioned himself so that the demon’s arm could grab onto his shoulder, and hoisted him up, pulling him into a standing position.

“Lean on me for support while we walk. I'll take you to the bed.” he said, making absolutely sure he was holding on tightly enough to provide support.

“N-no, I'm fine. I can walk on my own, I swear.” Though he insisted on being self-sufficient, he grabbed Ravi’s arm even tighter than before.

“No, you can't. We're not going that far, so hang tight.”

The man next to him looked extremely unsure of himself as he put one foot in front of the other, leaning heavily on Ravi for support until they got to the bed, where he was able to sit down.

When he sat down on the soft surface, his eyes shifted around the room as he seemingly tried to get his bearings. His face was red.

Ravi supposed it was harder to see now that he only had two eyes instead of however many he had before. The demon looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't, so Ravi asked the first question.

“Are you gonna be okay? I uh, don't really have a wheelchair, but I guess I could get one from somewhe-”

“No need for that, I'm absolutely fine. I just...haven't had legs in a long while, that's all.” he said, putting his hands behind him for support.

Ravi sighed, looking at him with concern. Even if he was a thousands-year old demon, he still appeared human and didn't seem like he could move around on his own. He couldn't help but worry.

“Please, I'm fine. I just need to get used to walking around again. I could do it before.” he said, and kicked his legs to show that they could at least be moved.

“I guess. But you can’t get used to walking if you can’t walk, right? Maybe I can help?”

At that notion, the demon flinched back as if offended, but quickly regained his composure.

“That won’t be necessary, I can just ride in your shadow until I re-teach myself. There’s really no benefit to being worried about me, you know. A temporary problem like this is absolutely nothing to an immortal like me.”

He tried to stand again to prove a point, but failed, and fell backwards again.

At Ravi’s concerned glance, he sighed dejectedly before retreating into the shadows, showing that he could most certainly still do that.

Ravi sighed, just as loudly. Hongbin had said not to let his guard down, but seeing it- or anyone else in that kind of situation made it impossible not to pity them. It was a part of his nature, he supposed.

He couldn’t force it to accept any help, but he could at least make sure it didn’t get in any trouble while it was hurt, right? He wondered when he’d become a demon’s babysitter as he walked out the door, trying to purge any remaining sympathy before heading off to work.

\-----------------------------------------------

Work was more silent than usual. It was partly because Ravi didn’t have any song idea or big projects at the moment, but also because he had grown very used to the demon’s chatter over the past week.

It was still here, sitting on the couch in the studio, but uncharacteristically quiet, looking through the pile of idol magazines. Usually he would have found the silence to be a blessing, but today, it was a bit unsettling. Finally, he decided to speak up.

“Are you doing okay?”

“Yes, I'm fine.” he answered, sharply.

“Are you sure? ‘Cause you haven't said anything all day.”

“I thought you preferred it this way, Kim Ravi. I'm simply being considerate, which you should be extremely grateful for.” he said, flipping a page quickly. “It's not in my nature to be so nice.”

Ravi supposed he had a point. But if there was anything worse than endless chatter, it was passive-aggressive silence. His sanity could only take so much of that. Plus, even if he had nothing to do at the moment; awkward silence made quite the distraction.

“What're you reading?” he asked, trying to start some kind of civil conversation.

Instead of answering, the demon held up the magazine to show what pages he was reading, and pointed to a picture of a girl group. They looked familiar.

“Oh, is that 999? I know them. I even wrote a song for them recently.”

At this, the demon dropped his foul mood like a cup full of spiders and broke into pure shock.

“You  _ know  _ them? As in you've  _ met  _ 999?”

“Well, kind of. We're in the same company, so I've said hi once or twice. And I just finished writing them a song, so-”

“Are you telling me that your job _isn't _just sitting in a chair and looking frustrated? You write songs for idols?” he said, making it clear that he had never paid attention to Ravi's job before. Ouch.

“I guess. They're mostly B-side tracks, though-”

“That's amazing! Wait, what do idol songs even sound like? I didn't even know they performed.”

“Wait, what did you think they did?” he snorted.

“That- well, it’s not important. But anyways, I want to hear the idol song, play it! Play it now!” The demon bounced up and down in his seat, looking like a child who was told that he’d be getting a new puppy.

“Well okay, but you have to promise not to laugh.” he said, pulled the song up on the computer, and hesitantly pressed the play button.

He shifted his weight and acted very interested in the ground as an extremely cutesy girl group song blared from the speakers.

Admittedly, it wasn’t his best work; it was his first time working with a girl group and he didn’t quite understand how to capture the feeling of girlishness. It didn’t fit the image of his normal work, but he’d tried his best.

Despite his insecurities, the demon was bobbing his head to the beat and tapping his foot.

“So this is idol music, huh? Not bad!” he yelled in the middle of the second chorus.

“W-what do you like about it?” Ravi asked shyly, pressing the pause button.

“The beat is rhythmic and peppy. Not quite as upbeat as the music in Hell, but  _ certainly _ not as boring as human music was 500 years ago. To be honest,” he said, leaning a little more forward, though not doing much to bridge the distance of the room, “I'm so glad the harpsichord went out of style. If I have to hear  _ one  _ more harpsichord solo, I swear I'll-”

“So you like it?”

“Oh yes, it's great. I give it a pass.”

Ravi released a sigh he hadn’t realized he was holding in.

He usually didn’t show his work to anyone unless they found it on their own; he thought he’d be a bother if he forced people to listen. When he did show it to people, he was always afraid they wouldn’t like it, so a positive review was always extremely relieving.

“You said you have more, right? Show it to me. I want to learn more about this ‘idol music.’” the demon said, sitting up straighter on the couch, his eyes sparkling a little.

“Well, if you say so.”

He laughed nervously. He had to admit, it was nice having someone else interested in his music. He clicked the play button many times in the span of an hour, showing the demon more and more of his music, since his interest grew with every new song, until he got to his personal work. Then, he hesitated.

“What? You don’t have any more?” the demon asked, pouting a little.

“Well, I do have more, but…” he trailed off.

“But what? It’s not good? Please, I’ve heard a  _ lot  _ of bad music in all my years of life, it can’t be that awful.” he said confidently, turning his eyes expectantly towards the computer screen.

“No, it’s not bad,” he said, though he didn’t know how truthful this sentiment was, “It’s just different, I guess. I’ll show you what I mean.”

He pressed the play button on his most recent song, which he truthfully hadn’t listened to since he finished it. He sincerely hoped it was as good as he thought it was when he finished, because this was its first time reaching someone else’s ears.

The song started off with a piano melody escalated into a bass and drum beat, into his rap part. His face heated up when he heard his own lyrics.

Now that he thought about it, there was a way better word he could have used in stanza 2, and the chorus could have been catchier, too. The bridge was a little messy, and the song didn’t fade out very well. What was he thinking, showing it to someone when it was clearly not even finished?

“So it’s...just speaking?” said the demon, breaking his deep self-inflicted secondhand embarrassment.

“Uh, oh yeah, it’s called rap. I guess you’ve never heard of it, huh?” he said sheepishly, and rubbed the hairs on the back of his neck. Stupid, of course he wouldn’t know, he was surprised at photographs just last week.

“So it’s not idol music? Hm.”

“S-so, what did you think? Was it bad, or-”

“No, I thought it was good.”

“What?” he practically choked.

“Yeah, it was good. As in it wasn’t bad. What? Is there a problem with that? Was it supposed to be bad?” he asked, squinting at Ravi to make sure he wasn’t being bamboozled.

“Well no, but-”

“Because if your profession is to make bad music, then you’re really doing an awful job.” he said, still shifting his eyes suspiciously.

After a couple seconds, Ravi assured himself that that was a compliment, and a high one at that. He felt like he could cry of happiness, though he wasn’t sure he should be so happy that someone who knew nothing about music would like his stuff.

He heard the demon make a satisfied hum from across the room.

“What?”

“I have a deal for you. Oh, don’t worry. It’s not a contract.” he said, sweetly cupping his own face in his hands.

Oh no. A demon being sweet could only mean something horrible was about to happen. Still, Ravi  _ was _ curious about what it could be.

“What kind of deal?”

“I, as an immortal, surely have knowledge that you want, and you have knowledge that I want. How about an exchange?”

“Knowledge? Knowledge about what?” he asked, like an ignoramus. Ravi oftentimes felt like he didn’t know anything, so he had no idea what knowledge  _ he _ could have that anyone would want.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a little...slow at getting acclimated to modern human culture. Simply put, I’m ignorant. However, you, while quite slow, have the knowledge necessary to live in this era.”

“Gee, thanks.” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Let me finish speaking first, don’t you know how rude you’re being?”

Ravi wanted to laugh at the hypocrisy.

“Here are my terms; you teach me about everything you know in this world, and I will teach you the basics of confidence and anything else you’d want to know.” he said as he crossed his legs and leaned forward.

“Confidence? W-why would I need that?” Ravi asked, very unsure of himself.

“Because you seem like a man of great ambitions, and confidence is necessary, among other things, if you want to remain ambitious  _ without  _ a contract.”

“You think so?”

“Of course. But it won’t get you everything. I’m the only one who is capable of that.” he said, giggling. “So do we have a deal?”

He stretched a hand out, raising his eyebrows expectantly.

“Um, okay, I guess so.”

He shuffled across the room, and weakly grasped the demon’s hand.

“Firm handshake.” said the demon, leaning forward and narrowing his eyes.

“What?”

“Assert dominance. That’s how you move up in this world, right? Like this.” he said, and practically crushed Ravi’s hand in a firm grip.

He winced in pain and shock; he didn’t want to know how much dominance the demon thought it had with  _ that  _ handshake. Finally, he returned the grip with about half the force, mostly because he didn’t want to give the demon any more reason to break his hand.

“Good. We have a deal, then.” he said and released Ravi’s hand, which he shook out to remove some pain. “I look forward to doing business with you, hm?” he said with a smile that needed at least three conflicting adjectives to describe. Ravi shuddered.

Suddenly, there was a buzz from his phone. It wasn’t too late in the day, so he wondered why Hongbin, since he was the only one who contacted him lately, would be texting during business hours. 

Sure enough, it was Hongbin, saying that he wanted Ravi to come over ASAP.

Well, looked like he had an excuse to get out of work. It’s not like there was a lot to do, and he’d planned on coming back later, anyway.

“We’re going to Hongbin’s.” he said, grabbing his jacket.

“Who is that, again?” asked the demon, making his way through the shadows to Ravi.

“Oh, you’ll remember.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------

As Ravi started on the long walk to the bus stop, he noticed a convenience store in his peripheral vision. He hadn’t eaten all day, and figured Hongbin would want food too, since he couldn’t exactly cook for himself.

He saw the poster for idol magazines in the store window. Even though it had only been a few days, it felt like forever since the last time he went into the store. Hopefully no one there would remember him.

He stepped inside, the automatic doors opening with a satisfying whoosh as he walked towards his target; the heated foods section.

As he walked closer, he recognized a familiar face. It seemed the demon in his shadow noticed too, as he felt a sharp tug on his pant leg.

“Hey, isn’t that the rude boy? From the witch’s house?” he asked loudly, though thankfully not stupid enough to show himself.

“Shh, don’t be so loud!” he hissed.

Sure enough, Hyuk was right where Ravi needed to be, looking wistfully at something on display.

He remembered how awkward their last encounter was...and how it ended with Hyuk almost getting killed. He figured he’d better avoid him. However, the demon seemed to have other ideas.

“He called me blobby the last time we met! It’s unforgivable. I’ll show him what he deserves when he insults a demon!” he said, beginning to crawl out of the shadow.

“No, are you crazy?! This is a public place!” he hissed, stomping on the demon’s hands like they were spiders he found under his trash can.

“Oh, Ravi-ssi.” said a voice from behind. So much for being stealthy.

“Oh uh, hey there, Hyuk. Hooow are you? What’re you doing here?” he asked with an unusually wide grin on his face, desperately making sure that he was covering the hands that sprouted from the ground.

Hyuk looked at him suspiciously, then at the ground. “Nothing much. I’m just buying dinner.”

“Oh, really? Me too, actually. Maybe we could look together?” he asked, occasionally stealing glances at the ground.

“Hm. Sure.” he grunted, crossing his arms, and went back to stare at the food he was so intently looking at before. It turned out to be gopchang. As he kept looking at it, his expression softened from suspicion to a disappointed pout. He looked at his wallet, then back at the gopchang, then back at his wallet again,

“Umm...do you want me to buy that for you?”

Immediately, Hyuk whipped around quickly and looked at Ravi in pure shock, like he was trying to figure out if what he just heard was something that actually came out of his mouth. “Really?!”

“Well yeah, it’s not much trouble. Do you want a bean bun, too? I always get some for Hongbin when I come here. It’s like a running joke we have, so..”

“Hyung…” Hyuk whispered softly as he turned around to face Ravi, eyes sparkling.

He was shocked, was that really all it took for this kid to trust him? He counted his lucky stars as he went to buy the gopchang, a bento box, and a bunch of red bean buns to share. After he did, the two went outside the store to eat.

Ravi was usually fashionably late whenever he met with Hongbin; he was sure no one would mind as long as there was food in the equation. Plus, this was a good way to break the ice with someone he was sure he’d see more often, now that he was back in the habit of visiting his witch friend.

“So Hyuk, I didn’t know you lived alone. I mean, you’re buying convenience store food, right?” he asked.

“Nah, I live with my parents.” he said, very matter-of-factly.

“Really? They don’t cook for you?”

At this, Hyuk set his chopsticks down, allowing them to rest on the side of his bowl. Ravi instinctively cringed; had he said something wrong?

“Well, mom’s gone again, so Dad and I have to fend for ourselves. We’re both disasters in the kitchen, though definitely not as bad as Hongbin. I bet he’d burn the place down if he even touched the stove.” he said, snickering.

“Aha, yeah. That sounds tough. Where is your mom, though? Is she overseas?”

He shook his head ‘no.’

“Nah, she just works. A lot. She does the cooking and the cleaning too, but she’s not really home to make dinner a lot of the time. So I...come here a lot.” he said, letting his head drop, and stared into his bowl.

That was rough. Ravi didn’t know about not having his parents around, since they were almost always around him when he was growing up. In fact, he often got annoyed with their presence, especially when it came to the crushes he always got on people. Still, to have the opposite sounded much more lonely.

“Does your dad work, too?” he asked, hoping to find out if Hyuk was left alone a lot. This got a reaction from Hyuk, who swallowed and ran his hand through his hair.

“My dad...hasn’t been able to work in a long time. He got fired from his job about a year or so ago, and since then, he hasn’t been able to find anything else. He just kind of goes to interviews, and...well, a lot of them don’t go well.” he said, gently touching his eye.

Ravi stayed quiet. Unemployment was something he and his family knew a lot about. There were often nights where his father would come home from an interview, looking like a complete wreck. Though from how Hyuk was acting, it seemed that there was something else wrong.

“My mom,” Hyuk started up again, “She works two jobs, just to support us. We’re pretty poor, but thanks to her, we’re able to at least buy food. She does everything around the house, too, and sometimes...sometimes she just looks so tired. I wish I could do something, but I don’t have a car, and I don’t have any skills. And my dad, I think he feels bad about not being able to work sometimes.”

Ravi blinked to process all of Hyuk’s words. He had no idea that he’d had it so rough. He couldn’t imagine dealing with these sorts of problems as a teenager; it made him stop and think about how lucky his own childhood was, from what he could remember of it.

“I’m so sorry,” said Ravi, wishing he could say more to help.

“Don’t be, none of this is your fault. And plus, this is just how I live. There’s nothing I can do about it, really.” he said, and shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not really sure why I told you all that, but thank you, Ravi-hyung. For the food, anyway.” he said, grinning and quickly switching back to his usual, snarky demeanor.

“Oh, it’s no problem, really. Anytime.” he said, trying to shake off the heavy mood.

“Well, I’ll see ya later. Tell Hongbin-hyung he’d better be grateful for these bean buns,” he said as he took one and took a huge bite out of it, “they’re really good.”

“Okay, I will. See ya!” he said, and waved goodbye.

As he watched Hyuk walk in the opposite direction, he wondered if he would be alright. He didn’t really remember what he was like at that age, but he was sure it’d be tough for him to handle that kind of situation, even now.

“The poor child.” said a voice from below him. “He’s the kind of person that could really use my powers.”

Ravi scoffed in disgust. “You don’t really care at all, do you?”

“Well, I can’t say that I don’t care at  _ all _ .” the demon said, nonchalantly.

Ravi decided to ignore it and headed down the path to the bus stop. He’d eat his food later.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------

When he got to Hongbin’s house, the first thing he noticed was the mess. There was  _ one _ article of clothing on the ground and some cut paper lying around. It wasn’t a lot, but if he knew Hongbin, he could tell that this wasn’t normal.

“You’re  _ late.”  _ came a voice from the kitchen. Hongbin stormed out.

“Y-you said to come as soon as possible, so-” he stammered, turning his face away in an attempt to dodge his friend’s pissiness. He could tell from one glance that his friend’s bad mood wasn't just from his tardiness; his eyes had visible bags under them. He hadn't slept in ages.

“This is seriously important, so-wait, are those red bean buns?” he asked, his demeanor suddenly shifting.

“Oh yeah, I brought ‘em for you. You want one?”

It seemed Ravi didn’t even need to ask, as Hongbin snatched one out of the bag with all the speed and accuracy of a ninja, and took a huge bite.

“Mmf, you’re forgiven.” he said, his mouth full of bun. He gestured for Ravi to come to the back, and led him to a small table in the kitchen with three chairs; one on one side and two on the other. On the table was a small desk lamp.

“What’s this? I’ve never seen this stuff before.”

“You’ll find out. Now, call your demon out and have it sit down in that chair.” He said as he pointed to the one chair that was by itself.

“Uhh, I can’t really call him out, he just kinda does what he wants.”

“‘He’?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He looked down at the ground skeptically, and turned on a bright light hanging above them. Now Ravi’s shadow could be easily seen, so he bent down and stared into it. “Listen, I know I said I didn’t want to see you and your ugly face ever again, but I’m making an exception this time. We need to talk.” he spat.

Silence, for about thirty seconds. And then..

“Ugly?! How dare you! I’ll come out, but only to beat you down, you rude little witch boy!” the demon screeched, and scrambled to come out of Ravi’s shadow, knocking over Ravi’s legs in the process.

Because he couldn’t walk, the demon ended up crawling out, leaving him and Ravi in a strange pile on the ground.

“Oh, that was easier than I thought. For a thousands year old demon, you sure are easy to manipulate.” he said smugly as he smirked widely enough for his dimples to show. “Now Ravi, sit him in that chair over there.”

“Ugh, easy for you to say.” he groaned. He pushed himself off of the demon’s legs and stood up.

“Alright, time to get up.”

He bent over and lifted the demon into a standing position after much struggling.

He was lighter than he thought; he half-wondered if he was light enough to carry, too. He shook the thought and sat him in the chair, not able to get away quickly enough to escape the disapproving glare the demon gave him.

“Is this good enough?” he asked.

“Yeah, perfect. Now, then...activate.” 

Hongbin snapped his fingers.

When he said that single word, a purple aura surrounded the chair with a crackling sound, then disappeared.

“Uh, what was tha-”

“Did you just  _ seal  _ me? the demon asked slowly, and tried to remove himself from the chair. No matter how hard he pushed on the seat, it wouldn’t budge. Almost as if he were glued to it.

“Sure did. Though it looks like it wasn’t strong enough to disintegrate your form. How disappointing.” he said, looking at the chair with disgust, like it was a failed science experiment.

For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, the demon laughed.

“Oh no, I think  _ you’re  _ the disappointing one. You’re not too confident in yourself, are you?” he said, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

“And what is _ that _ supposed to mean?”

“Let me ask you this; how does it feel to paralyze a cripple, Healer? Is it reassuring to you?”

“What are you talking about? You’re nobody I should feel sorry for.” he said, and clicked his tongue in mild disgust.

“Of course not, I don’t mean to assume. I’m only saying that it’s useless to break the legs of someone who can’t walk. You see what I’m getting at, don’t you?”

“No, actually, you’re making no sense at all.” he said, flatly.

“You could easily kill me even without a seal, really. Well, you could if only you were skilled enough.” he laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snarled, hand reaching for a weapon he kept in his belt loop.

“Uh, guys-” interjected Ravi, trying to stop what was about to start.

“Though I bet you couldn’t even kill me now, hm? You’re weak and afraid.”

“Guys?”

“Hmph. I’m sure I could, you lowly hellspawn. I’m not afraid of you.” he said, gritting his teeth and pulling a rainbow-colored blade from his belt loop.

“Then come at me. I  _ dare  _ you.”

“Guys, please!! Stop fighting!” Ravi yelled desperately, and put himself between the two. He had no idea  _ what  _ was about to go down, but he didn’t want anyone getting hurt, no matter how one-sided the fight might be.

The two froze where they were. Hongbin slowly put the blade back into his belt loop with a growl of frustration, looping it around the handle a couple times to secure it.

“It’s not worth it. That isn’t why we’re here.” he said, calming himself by taking another large bite of the bean bun he’d put down on the countertop.

“Fine, but it’s really your loss. It’ll only get harder from here, you know.” the demon said, pleased with himself. He knew he had won this battle, all the evidence was in the grin on his face.

“I’ll be back.” Hongbin said, walking out, eyes narrowed as he kicked open the door to the examination room.

As soon as he was out of the room, Ravi turned quickly to the demon, eyes wide with horror.

“Why did you  _ do  _ that?!” he yelled, putting his hands to his head.

“Why not?” he said, still wearing a grin.

“You could've been killed. Hongbin doesn't mess around, for real.” Even though he’d never actually seen Hongbin do anything but heal people, he was certain that whoever knew how to heal also knew exactly how to hurt.

“Oh, worried about me, are you? I'm touched.”

“No, really. Why did you do that?”

“It’s rule number one of being confident: Never show weakness, no matter how much of a disadvantage you have. I won’t let myself be outdone by a snarky healer with a piddling anti-demon knife, you know.” he said, waggling a finger.

“But that’s just-” he was cut off by the abrupt opening of the exam room door as Hongbin walked in the room with books and papers galore, slamming them on the table in front of him.

“I don’t intend on playing nice. You  _ will  _ answer my questions.” He glared and slid the books on the table out of the way so he could look directly into his opponent’s eyes.

“Alright, pretty boy. Try me.”

Ravi knew it might be pointless, but he wished with all his heart that everyone in the room would leave unscathed by the end of this. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you guess who the demon is?  
It's N, finally making his debut in his new, much less scary form!  
I'm sorry for not making it obvious at first, and it will still be awhile before he gets his actual "name," but here he is! I love to write him and I hope you all grow to love him, too.


	10. Chapter 10

“Ugh, this is totally hopeless!” said Hongbin, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “Your actions don’t make any _ sense! _”

Ravi cringed from the sudden rise in volume.

Hongbin had been interrogating the supernatural phenomenon with all the dramatic flair of someone in a Hollywood cop movie. Ravi was supposed to be Good Cop, but he didn’t even think he could be Wimpy Cop, with how much he didn’t want to go against the one being interrogated. He didn’t want to mess with things he couldn’t control.

Hongbin, however, seemed to really want to go against something he couldn’t control, and grilled it for answers for a whole hour. But, as Ravi guessed by his friend’s frustrated noises, he had gotten nowhere. Or at least, _ he _ seemed to think so.

_ Ravi _ learned a great many things from this experience.

One of which was that the demon was even more stubborn than Hongbin; which he didn’t think was possible. Another was that the demon was apparently trying to lay low and escape the law. Ravi didn’t even know that demons _ had _ laws, from how uncivilized Hongbin made them sound, but apparently, they were both in the presence of a criminal, who had broken a great many laws. What those laws were, though, he wouldn’t tell them, but apparently his crimes were pretty severe.

But that was the problem.

“You showed yourself in a witch’s domain not once, but twice. You react to literally _ any _ insult thrown at you, which makes me believe that you’re constantly looking to pick a fight. And thirdly, you tried to kill my friends. In _ front _ of me. In my house. What if I called the Witch Authorities on you, hm? It seems like you’re _ trying _ to get caught.” he said, and put his face inches from the demon’s, in intimidation. “What are you _ really _doing here?”

Ravi swore he could see a bead of sweat collect on the demon’s forehead. But it quickly faded.

“You’d better get away from me.” the demon growled.

“Or what?”

“Or, I might kiss you.” He laughed.

Hongbin nearly ran smack into the table from how quickly he backed away; his face flashing with pure disgust.

“Don’t play games with me!”

“Aww, how cute. Did I fluster you? Did I ruffle your little black feathers?”

Hongbin pinched the bridge of his nose again, in an attempt not to completely lose it.

“Answer the question. If you’re trying to hide, you’re _ clearly _not trying very hard.”

The demon smirked.

“I can’t help it. Seeing your face spurs my emotions. I just _have_ to show myself.”

Hongbin looked like he was about to pull out the dagger, again.

“Woah, woah!” Ravi said, cutting in, and put himself between the two.

He looked at the demon, who wore the biggest grin on his face, despite still being glued to a pastel green, wooden chair with legs that were so tall his own feet couldn’t touch the ground. Not many people could pull off intimidation in that kind of situation, so Ravi admired him a bit.

“Could you please explain what’s going on? I really don’t get it, and you two arguing isn’t exactly helping me.”

Hongbin took another deep breath and explained.

“He’s obviously set on making a contract, since he already has a human form. Which makes sense; from what I’ve researched, demons that are bound by contract are obligated to stay on Earth. And since he doesn’t want to go back to Hell,” he said, side-eyeing the demon, “He probably wants to stay here. But my question is, why is he so intent on following _ you _ around? At this point, he could get a contract with anyone.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Ravi said, and turned back to the demon. “You said that there were other people that need your power more; when we passed by Hyuk, earlier.”

Hongbin blanched. Ravi saw him put his hand on his belt loop and clench his fist, but he moved it no farther than that. Silence permeated the air.

Finally, the demon spoke again.

“Well, you are correct about one thing. I _ do _ want a contract. And since _ he _ was the one that summoned me with his blood, he is the obvious first choice.”

Hongbin scoffed.

“What? Ravi didn’t _ summon _ you.”

“Of course he did. That _ was _ your blood on the seal, wasn’t it? My senses are never incorrect.” he said, his voice showing confidence, but his expression looking very confused.

“W-well, I guess I technically _ did _ summon you, but-”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Hongbin grinned. “Ravi cut himself when trying to pick up the pieces of your ugly vessel, and got a drop of blood on your seal. He has no _ real _motivation to use you, and therefore, won’t make a contract with you.”

“What? He summoned me on accident? But he freed me with his blood. Placing blood on a seal initiates a contract, you know. You did know that, didn’t you?”

Ravi didn’t want to look at whatever the demon’s expression had morphed into. He didn’t want to atone for whatever mistake the demon had thought he made.

“I-I didn’t know.”

Ravi heard the demon hmph.

“Well, that _ does _ explain a lot. Though despite that, you did seem that you would be easily persuaded, in the beginning.”

“Wait, why can’t you just find someone else to contract with? I mean, I’m obviously not going to do it, so...” he said, trailing off.

The demon’s eyes shifted back and forth between Ravi and Hongbin.

“Well, that’s because I-”

“Because he can’t.” said Hongbin, grinning.

“What?” Ravi said, not getting the picture.

“O-of course I can! I just-”

“You look nervous. Are you, perhaps, affected by the initiation and delayed completion of the contract? Or are you just _ acting _ weak?”

“Hmph. I’m not affected at all.”

“Then break my seal.”

Ravi turned to Hongbin, incredulously. “What?!”

Hongbin did not budge. He didn’t even smile.

“Go on, do it. I’m sure you’re capable of it.”

Ravi covered his eyes, shielding himself visually from the fight that was no doubt about to break out in the kitchen. But the longer he waited, the more he realized that it wasn’t going to happen. He opened his eyes.

The demon still sat in the chair, looking defiant.

“He...he didn’t do it.”

“That’s because he can’t. Do you remember what I texted you a couple days ago?”

Ravi made the gears in his head turn as fast as he could as he tried to think back to the events of a few nights ago. There was no way he’d remember the contents of a text message, he could barely remember what he’d had for breakfast this afternoon.

Hongbin sighed. “Just check your phone, Ravi.”

“Oh. Right.” Ravi pulled up his messages on his phone, and read through them himself. He happened upon the one where Hongbin had corrected his text lingo.

“Well, I remember you were pretty salty about something.”

“No, the _ other _ text message! Use your head!”

“Fine, you don’t have to insult me.”

He continued scrolling. Although there weren’t many text messages from Hongbin in his phone, he stopped himself from succumbing to the temptation of picking out any particularly embarrassing ones. He settled on the other text from a couple nights ago, and read it aloud.

“I think I found out why that hellspawn won’t stop following you. It took some digging, but there’s something I found in a book called a blood bond.._ . _” he read, noticing the change in the air on the demon’s side when he read the word “hellspawn.” Was that a demon insult? He continued on.

“It’s like a pre-contract contract. It weakly binds the demon to your soul, so it can know your location. It’s not permanent though. Since you unsealed it with blood a few days ago, it should last until the next lunar cycle-oh! This is it, the blood bond!” he said, pointing at the screen, feeling like a detective, though he found information that was literally right in front of his face. 

“Blood bond? What are you talking about?” the demon asked, seemingly surprised.

“Don’t play dumb, I think you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

The demon paused for a moment, as if to think, and then started to laugh.

“Oh, yes, you’ve got me! Good job, I didn’t think you would be so smart!”

Hongbin narrowed his eyes.

“That does explain why I can feel his presence with intense precision, even though we aren’t bound by a contract. Yes, I’m weakened because of the bond between us. Poetic, isn’t it?”

Hongbin sat down at the other chair at the table, and put his hand on his chin.

“Alright. Then tell me all about the effects this bond has. I’m curious.”

“Hmph. I can’t explain what I feel, I simply feel it. You understand, don’t you? You humans have plenty of things like that, if I remember correctly. But if I must tell you, I feel a stronger attachment to him. And my body is weaker. That is all.”

“And you can’t make a contract until it wears off.”

“Yes, exactly.”

“I-I’m doing all of this?” Ravi asked, and looked down at the demon. If it was true, it really was poetic; that a bit of him could cripple a creature to powerful into being unable to walk.

“I don’t think so.” said Hongbin. “According to this book, a blood bond does ‘tie’ a demon to a potential charge for a full lunar cycle, but it doesn’t weaken them.” he said, and narrowed his eyes even more. “It makes them stronger.”

At this, the demon looked like he was about to fall out of his chair.

Ravi had no idea why, but he looked...scared.

“But if that’s the case then, why...”

“You can’t make a contract with anyone but Ravi for an entire month, and you’re weak. Yet you still try to make yourself known wherever you go. Are you really _ that _ stupid? Or do you have some grand scheme that I don’t know about?”

The demon stayed silent.

“I don’t have any scheme.”

“Yeah, right. Like you expect me to believe that.”

“Honestly! You can use a truth spell on me if you so desire! I don’t have anything else to say!”

Hongbin waved his wand around, as if he were about to do just that, but then stopped himself mid-way, and put it back in his belt loop.

“Hmph. You’re incredibly suspicious. I can’t prove you’re not up to something, and I don’t want to be here all day. But I do have one question; what’s going to happen if you make a contract with him?”

“Hongbin! Have you given up on me?” said Ravi, feeling hurt.

“No. I just want to hear this.” he said, and gestured for the demon to continue.

“Hm, it’s simple, really. I will give him whatever he wishes for in life, and at the end of his life, I will come back to collect his soul. It’s a very fair deal; we demons have always prided ourselves on our fairness.”

“Hah. Yeah, right. I meant, what do _ you _get out of it?”

“I get a good hiding place, and a soul. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Hongbin sighed.

“Look, I don’t care about your past, if you’re some kind of outlaw or whatever. I don’t really _ care _ that you need a contract. But what I _ do _ care about is Ravi, and if you do absolutely anything to hurt him, or me, or anyone near me, you’re _ not _ getting off the hook. Frankly, I just want you to do your job and get out of my life. Leave him alone for the month, and find someone else to make a contract with.”

“Oh, it’s not that simple. Plus, you have no idea what you’re asking.” he said, smirking.

“Whatever. I don’t care who you end up contracted with. It’s funny, even though this is my first time seeing your human face, I’m already sick of it.”

“Hmph. Same to you. You’re absolutely sickening. I’ll be leaving now, _ if _you’ll unseal me.”

Hongbin sighed as he snapped his fingers, causing the purple aura to re-appear and then disappear.

“Done. Now get out of here.”

“Does...that mean me, too?” Ravi asked, pointing at himself.

“Oh, uh- yeah. He’s kind of attached to you for now. Sorry about that, dude. Thanks for the food, though.” he said, taking a bun from the bag. When he discovered it was cold, he put it back in the bag, supposedly to save for later.

“Well, I’m gonna go work downstairs. I’ll see ya later. Be safe, okay?” he said, and descended the staircase.

“O-okay, see ya.” he said, waving weakly.

When the sound of his footsteps stopped, Ravi hoped Hongbin would at least be able to get some sleep now. There was no mistaking how tired he looked; and it seemed the interrogation made him even more tired. He turned to the demon, who still sat, looking very frustrated, on the chair.

“Well, we should go. Aren’t you gonna get in my shadow?”

“I...I can’t.” he said, looking ashamed.

“What? What do you mean, you can’t?”

“I just can’t, is all! Is there something so difficult to understand about that?”

“Uh, yes? Couldn’t you move around fine before?”

He rolled his eyes in exasperation. “If I try to go into your shadow now, I’ll lose my form. All my energy from the past hour has been spent keeping it up. It would be unfortunate to lose it after I worked so hard on it.”

Ravi waited for the demon to say something else, and when he only heard silence, offered a suggestion of his own.

“Do you need help? He’s not gonna like it if I leave you here.”

“No!” the demon exclaimed. Ravi watched his eyes dart around the room. “I mean- Yes, I _ suppose.” _ He held his arms up toward the sky, like a child asking to be picked up by his parent. Ravi couldn’t help but let out a snort.

“Don’t laugh at me. I’m warning you!” he said, glaring harshly.

“Alright, alright. I won’t laugh.” he said, trying really hard not to giggle. “So let’s see, how do we wanna do this.” he said, looking at the demon’s positioning for the most optimal carrying method. 

Piggyback would work alright, but if he couldn’t move his legs to jump on, it would be a real hassle to position him, especially if he had to put him down for any reason. He figured the fireman carry would be a little too demeaning for a demon; besides, he could still move his arms, he’d probably want control of the situation. So that left...

“You’re okay with bridal-style, right?”

“Bridal-what? I assure you, I don’t intend on getting married in this life.”

“No, that’s- here, turn yourself to the side.”

“Alright, I’ll go along with your little plan.” he said as he turned himself around, using his arms to push him up out of the seat and rotate himself to the side. “Now, what do you want me to-woah!” He started to fall back, due to there not being any support on the side of the chair.

Ravi ran forward and caught him before he fell back, his back resting in the crook of his arm. That was way too close.

“O-okay, we’re halfway there, now just grab around my neck.” he said, forcing his arm underneath the demon’s knees.

“Ooookay.” he said unsurely, instantly grabbing Ravi’s neck for support.

It seemed as though he was afraid of having his feet off the ground, which was unusual, considering that he didn’t have even feet before becoming human.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you. And plus, you’re actually not that heavy.”

“Of course. I, I’m light as a feather.” he said, his voice shaking as his grip became tighter. “Let’s get out of here right now, I don’t want to be in this demeaning position for any longer than I have to.”

“Yeah yeah, don’t worry. We’ll be home sooner than you think.” he said, and chuckled a little. He couldn’t help it, this whole situation was ridiculous.

“Hurry up, hurry up already!” he yelled, chopping Ravi’s neck with a free hand, trying to whip him into moving faster, like a horse.

Ravi, unlike a horse, was not pain-motivated, so the trip back to his apartment took longer than either of them wanted or expected.

When he got to his building, anxiety made him want to avoid any prying eyes in the elevator, so he opted to walk up fifteen flights of steps with an angry demon in his arms. 

Big mistake. 

His arms felt like lead when he finally put his housemate down on the couch and threw a blanket over him.

As he walked out of the living room, he heard the demon’s voice from behind him yell, “I’ll pay you back double-time for this, Kim Wonshik! Just you watch! I’ll get you back!”

Ravi shut the door and put his new earplugs in.

He didn’t care about supernatural revenge, as long as it didn't involve waking him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the long delay between updates. I took a break for the holidays, and then I got sick for like, a week and a half, and then I started working on figuring out stuff for my future. Ugh.  
I also struggled a lot with posting this one. The interrogation scene was originally a lot longer, but I decided most of it wasn't necessary, and I made it shorter. Honestly, I'm glad I did; I agonized for weeks over what to do with it ouo;;  
Anyway, sorry that this one is so short but the next chapter will be a lot more exciting, and longer!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates. You know when you forget to update once, and then you feel really guilty about it? Well, that happened to me. But since we're all stuck indoors, I figured that now's a good a time as any to post the chapters I've already finished, and keep working on the story itself.  
Thanks for being so patient, and I hope you all enjoy!

Ravi tossed and turned in his bed, hoping and praying that the banging he heard outside of his room was an auditory hallucination caused by work exhaustion.

Bang.

Maybe it was just construction work. He’d recently heard a rumor that they were planning to do work on the building. Yeah, that had to be it.

Bang.

Hell, the noise could be anything. It could be in his apartment, even. As long as it didn’t make its way into his room, he would be absolutely fine.

Bang.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. He rolled over wearily, trying not to see what had just rudely busted its way into his personal space.

“Kim Ravi, it is time to wake up!” said the most annoying voice he had ever heard. It sounded oddly familiar.

Maybe if he ignored it, it would go away and leave him to his peaceful sleep.

“Are you listening? I _ said _it’s time to wake up.” the voice continued, making absolutely sure to be as ear-grating as possible.

“Five more minutes.” he mumbled, and pulled the blanket over his ears.

“No, _ now.” _it said, pulling the blanket off in one swift and merciless motion.

He shivered and blinked blearily, looking up at the peeved figure standing above him. He was sure it couldn’t be as pissed as he was right now, though.

After a quick re-inspection, the figure revealed itself to be his demon housemate.

Ravi sat up groggily, rubbing his head to get the rest of the noise out before looking back at the demon. Wait a minute, he was standing.

“Did you like...are you…” he stammered, his brain still struggling to deliver words to his mouth.

“Yes, I learned to stand! And look, I can even do this!”

He struck a pose, sticking his leg out and then hunching over on the other leg like a gremlin.

Ravi wished he were still asleep, so that image would remain in his fever dreams. Sadly, he was in reality.

“Please don’t do that again.” he deadpanned.

“Hmph, I can’t make any promises.” the demon said smugly as he crossed his arms, and stuck his hip out.

As Ravi shook out the rest of the sleepiness from his head, he noticed that there was something strange about his roommate. Multiple things, actually.

“Hey, are you covered in bruises? And-are those _ my _clothes?!”

He definitely remembered buying those mesh jeans recently. They had just come into style, after all, and he had been curious about what they would look like on him. The shirt was one he had made for himself a couple years ago; it read ‘1 day 2 live.’ He was pretty proud of himself for coming up with that line, though now it looked kind of silly. Since his shoulders were wider than the demon’s, it hung a bit loosely on his frame, exposing his collarbones. All of that would have been fine, except for the fact that his favorite beanie had been snatched as well.

Yes, those were definitely his clothes.

“Is that a problem?” he asked, smirking as his eyes narrowed in amusement. “My own shirt got stretched out by that witch, after all. What was his name, again? Bingbong?”

“Hongbin.”

“Ah yes, him.”

“And yeah, it’s a problem! You can’t just wear my stuff without permission!”

He laughed, as if Ravi were stupid for assuming that he would even attempt asking for permission.

“If I had to ask permission for every little thing I did, I wouldn’t get very far, now would I? Take it as another lesson in confidence, I’m being quite generous with them.”  
“Well maybe, but it’s _ my stuff!” _he objected, totally exasperated.

“Honey, if I could make more of my own clothes, I would. But that was my only outfit. And you don’t wear the same outfit every day, do you?”

Ravi had nothing to say to that. Oh, how he wished he were one of those hot-blooded anime protagonists. Not because he wanted to be more assertive, but so he wouldn’t have to spend so much on clean shirts. They wore the same thing for like, hundreds of episodes, after all.

“So what do you expect me to do, then? I don’t have a lot of money to spend right now, especially not on clothes.”

“Hmm, how about this. You buy me clothes when you get the money, and in exchange, I’ll…” he paused, looked around the room, looking for something to offer. His eyes landed on the pile of clothes in the corner. “I’ll clean this place up for you. Sound like a deal?”

“So you’re gonna become like, my housemaid if I buy you clothes? That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Watch it, mortal. If you _ ever _ compare me to a servant again, I’ll retract the deal and make you eat your words. Literally.” he spat, reminding Ravi through his piercing gaze that he although he appeared harmless now, he was a demon outlaw.

“Okay, geez, I was just joking.” he said, quickly putting his hands up as a barrier.

“Good, I’m glad we understand each other. Now, shouldn’t you be getting to work? I know from daily observation that you usually leave around this time.”

“Wha? What do you-oh no.”

He looked at his bedside clock. “I’m gonna be late, aren’t I?”

“Well, that’s not for me to decide, now is it?”

At that, he sprung out of bed, brushed his teeth, and threw on clean clothes before sprinting out the door.

* * *

The demon enjoyed himself as he went through his now-established daily routine of flipping through idol magazines.

Truth be told, he didn’t understand a lot of what was in them. He just liked to look at the pictures.

Modern human fashion really was funny, who would have guessed that they would start wearing feathers on their back like wings in this century?

Though, these feathery wings _were_ more extravagant than the fashion he saw on the street. Perhaps these strange outfits were a sign of class.

Though he had to say, he did not like the combination of neon with animal print; status symbol or not. After looking at several disgusting outfits, he supposed he would stick with subdued, middle class-style clothing. It would help him blend in, after all.

He flipped to another page, which talked about a rainbow-colored band named Bullet Train. Apparently they had a ‘comeback,’ whatever that was. In his knowledge, a comeback was something you said to someone after they insulted you. He hoped Bullet Train had a good one, because their outfits were absolutely horrendous. They’d need it to survive his critique.

“Uuugh, not again.” groaned Kim Ravi from the corner of the room.

There he went again. He was quite surprised when he learned that Kim Ravi’s occupation wasn’t to sit in a chair and groan at a machine; that was all he did when he came to the office.

He ignored his officemate’s agony and flipped through another magazine. He found a quiz, claiming, based off of his answers, that it could predict which member of a band would be his soulmate. Though he hardly believed in soulmates, he doubted that a piece of paper would have the power to predict such an important piece of information. Though if it could only choose between seven people, then perhaps...

“Hey hey, Ravi-oppa! Geez, what’s got you so down? I can practically feel your disgruntlement from the lower floor, what’s up with that?” A feminine voice came from the doorway.

The demon looked over to see a girl with a green headband.

Ah, right. He’d seen her before, during the time he was hiding in Ravi’s shadow.

Who was she supposed to be, again?

“Ah. Hey, Da Mi. I dunno, I just-I have no ideas, is all. I keep sitting here, but I can’t come up with anything.”

“Well then, do I have news for you! Ken sent me to- Ooh, who’s this? I don’t think you’ve introduced me!” she squealed, eyeing the demon.

He paused and looked up from his reading.

“No fair, you gotta tell me when you have handsome friends, oppa!”

Well, it seemed that this was the perfect time to give him a name. He put his magazine down and looked expectantly at Kim Ravi, waiting to finally receive an Earth identity.

“U-uh…” Ravi looked around the room nervously. 

Suddenly, he recalled the conversation about the unfortunately-named dog. Oh, no.

“N…?” he said slowly, trying to spell out something.

“His name is N? Ooh, that’s a bit unusual, isn’t it? Is he foreign?”

The demon, “N”, looked at Ravi like he’d betrayed him and his entire family and silently mouthed, “N? A letter?”

“Yeah, yeah! His name is N. He’s uh...he’s my friend. From overseas.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. He was stunned, shocked, appalled, and he was not going to stand for this.

He desperately tried to get Ravi’s attention by waving his arms, slitting his throat with his finger, anything. He’d do anything, even put off a contract for another month, before he had to live the rest of his Earth life with a letter for a name.

“Aha, he…he doesn’t speak a lot of Korean.” Ravi said, smiling sheepishly.

“Ooh, is that so? Where’s he from?” the bubbly girl asked, curiously.

“He’s from, uh….” he mumbled. The demon tracked his eyes, and saw he looked at another poster. It was one of a music man that he had never heard of. To...to?

“Africa.”

Africa?! Really?! His eyes went wide in disbelief.

She was not going to buy that, no one would be so stupid. He had made himself look very Korean, after all.

“Really? He doesn’t look like it, but I guess that would explain why he’s so dark.”

Dark?! Oh, that was it. If Ravi wanted him to play the role of a foreign friend, he was going to do it in the most obnoxious way possible. He cleared his throat and started speaking in a language he was absolutely sure neither of them would understand.

_ “Hi there, hello! Wow, I’ve never met a human without a brain in their head! What does it feel like? I just have to know.” _he said cheerfully to the girl, shaking her hand.

“Oh, ah- it’s...nice to meet you, too! You’re N, right? I’m Da Mi!” she said cheerfully.

Ravi was grimacing.

_ “Yes, I’m the humble letter lost in the alphabet. Now, I have to know. Do you float when you go underwater? Does your head act as a buoy, you airheaded bitch?” _

“Aha yeah, that’s pretty cool!” she said, totally oblivious.

“Yeah, don’t mind him. He’s just excited to meet new people!” Ravi said nervously as he desperately mouthed a ‘what are you doing’ to N.  
The demon gave a piercing glare to Ravi, letting him know that he knew exactly what he was doing.

_ “That’s right, I remember! I _ have _ met someone just like you! His name is Kim Ravi, I think you’ll like him. You can float together once I push you both under the River Styx, won’t that be fun?” _he said cheerfully, with a sing-songy note.

“I think he’s talking about you, oppa! Wow, he seems to like you a lot!”

“Ahaha, wow, isn’t that right! We’ve been friends for like, what, five years now?” he said, gesturing to cut it out by slitting his throat with his finger.

_ “Oh yes, of course! Though I hope you know that right now I'd sell you to the black market in exchange for a single sock!” _

“Ahhh, anyway, you said you had news for me?” Ravi asked, sweat showing through his shirt as he tried to hide his nervousness.

“Hm? Oh, yeah! Ken wanted to see you again. That should help, right? I know he’s your source of inspiration, after all!” she said playfully.

“S-stop that.” he croaked. The tips of his ears turned pink.

“Oh, you’re so cute! But I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Chances are it’s just another fortune-telling thing. Hey, speaking of which? I totally think he’s a fake.” she whispered, hiding her mouth from no one in particular with her hand.

“Huh? What makes you say that? I thought you were a huge fan of his fortunes.”

“Well, I was. But then I went in for a love fortune the other day, and you know what he did?”

“What’d he do?”

“Get this! When I asked him about how my love life was going to be, he pulled out a magic 8-ball and said ‘Try Again Later.’ Can you believe it?! What a jerk!” she huffed, leaning against the doorframe.

‘N’ flinched back as a loud laugh erupted from Ravi.

“Yeah, that sounds like him. I’ll go see what he wants.” he said, walking out of the doorway and down the hall.

“Okay, good luck! And N, it was nice to meet you!” she giggled.

_ “I hope you die in a fire~!” _he called cheerfully, then rolled his eyes in disgust.

* * *

Ravi nervously walked down the hallway, checking himself as he went. He wanted to believe that today's meeting would just be another fortune, but he couldn't help but feel like things were going to be different after today. Or maybe that was just his optimism talking. It was probably nothing.

He hesitantly stood outside the doorway to Ken's office, where surprisingly, Ken was alert, and looked back at him with a smile.

“Welcome, welcome! I've been- expecting you.” he said, imitating a mob boss as he spun a 360 in his rolly chair. All he needed was a fluffy cat, and then the image would have been perfect. Ravi couldn't help but chuckle.

“Come in, already! I can't talk to you from there! Well, I can, but that’d be kinda difficult!” he yelled, demonstrating its difficulty, and gestured excitedly for Ravi to come in.

He willingly complied with a smile on his face, and sat down in a chair Ken had set out for him.

“So, you wanted to see me?”  
“Yeah, duh! Do you think I’d call you in here just to tell you to go away? I’m not _ that _mean!” he snickered. “Hey, truth is, I’m about to reveal something big. Huge, even! So I’m gonna need you to close the door.”

“Oh uh, okay.” he said, and obediently did as he asked.

He realized this would be his first time alone with Ken behind closed doors, and got nervous.

No, wait! This was just business, there was no reason to get excited or anything.

Still, he couldn’t stop his heart from racing as he sat back down, waiting for whatever would come next.

“So!” Ken chirped, and clapped his hands loudly enough to startle Ravi, “I wanna talk to you about something.”

When that was the first sentence of a conversation, it usually meant that bad things were about to happen. He gulped.

“W-what do you want to talk to me about?”

“Well, I can’t tell you when you’re all the way over there! Come back!”

It was then that Ravi realized he had unconsciously scooted his chair back to the door. Whoops, his nerves had gotten to him. He hesitantly started to scoot his chair forward when Ken rolled right next to him. He flinched.

“Hey, don’t worry! It’s just me! Unless I’m your worst nightmare, of course. But you might wanna get professional help if that’s the case. Anyways!” he said, clapping his hands again, “I got a proposal for you.”

“I’m not ready for marriage!!” he blurted.

Ken blinked in shock, taking a second to process what had just been said.

“Uh, what?”

After a few seconds of Ravi feeling completely mortified, Ken appeared to put two and two together.

“Oooh! Nonono, not that kind of proposal, silly!” he said, his cheeks turning pink with embarrassment as he laughed it off. Ah, he was so adorable that Ravi felt like he could die on the spot from happiness, if he wasn’t already about to die of embarrassment. Wow, he felt dumb.

“W-well, I might as well tell you outright, right? Just so we’re not confused. So Ravi,” he said, pulling his hands and his face together in a serious fashion, “I want to collab with you.”

“Oh, it’s just a collab, huh? What a relief." he said, and took a few seconds to process what had been said.

"Wait, you _ what?!” _he choked, falling back in his chair again.

“Surprise! I didn’t think it’d be _ that _ shocking though, wow!” he giggled.

Ravi half-wondered why he was so animated around Ken, it sure didn’t do him any favors.

“W-why do you wanna collab with me? I don’t remember doing anything super amazing recently, so..”

“Well _ that, _my friend, is what I’m gonna reveal to you!” he said as he rolled his chair back to his desk, and flipped on the computer. Ravi scooted a little closer as he noticed that Ken pulled up something and pressed play. What came next would shock him.

Out of the speakers came his own voice. It was _ his _song, one that he’d never showed to anyone before yesterday. And plus, it was one of his more uh, vulgar songs. He felt the heat rise to his face as he took a great interest in the floor in an attempt to drown out his voice and his embarrassment with no success. When the song was over, he hesitantly looked up at Ken to see his reaction. Surprisingly, he was beaming.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me you made stuff like this?! It’s amazing!” he said, miming an explosion with his hands to show just how amazing he thought it was.

“W-what?” That wasn’t the reaction he expected at all.

“I mean it! Your lyrics are so good, they’re so full of passion and energy! They’re like, uh...pwah!” he chattered, miming another explosion with his hands.

“Pwah?” he mimicked, weakly miming an explosion as well. This was the most unexpected thing that had ever happened to him; he never thought he’d get genuine compliments like this, at least for a really long time. The fact that they were also coming from Ken was well, totally mind-blowing.

“A-ny-way! I’m not gonna sleep on talent like this! I want you to write a song for me! Well, I wanna write a song together! How’s that sound?”

How did it sound? It sounded like the best deal of his life, that’s what it sounded like.

“It sounds great! I’d love to! But uh, how did you find this in the first place?” he asked warily.

“Oh, that? Well, you left your door open the other day, so I snuck in and listened to everything you had! It was really good, you know!”

He did what, now?

“Anyway, that’s not important! What _ is _important is that we’re gonna be working together, woohoo! We should go get food, to celebrate! I know a great place! Let’s go in a little bit!”

Ravi reeled at all of this new information as he slowly nodded in response to Ken’s invitation. He couldn’t believe it, a collab proposal and a dinner date? With the same person? Today might have just become the best day of his life. He felt totally dazzled.

“So, I’ll knock on your door at 5 o’clock, okay? You’d better be ready! I’m really excited!”

“Yeah, I will be...ready.” he said as he slowly stood up and walked towards the door. Unfortunately, since the door was still closed, he ran face first into it, warranting concern from his apparent date. As soon as he very unconvincingly convinced him that he was okay, he slowly opened the door and shakily made his way back to his office, physically running into Da Mi on the way.

“Hey! Oh, how’d it go, oppa?”

He could do nothing more than respond with a muffled “ehe” before nearly running into his own door, this time. He opened the door, closed it, and sat on the couch next to N, who hadn’t moved since he left.

_ “So, you met with your dream boy. I’m sure it went horribly. In fact, I hope it did.” _

Ravi couldn’t understand a word of what his demon officemate was saying, but he could only respond with an airy giggle as he buried his head in his knees.

N looked totally offended.

* * *

By the time 5 rolled around, Ravi had come back to his senses, though just barely. He had no idea how long he sat on that couch, laughing to himself over how ridiculous the whole situation was, but he only managed to come back to reality when N hit him on the head with a newspaper and yelled at him in some foreign language. For a second, he thought he’d gone to another country. He thought he could see concern in his eyes, but maybe that was just an illusion caused by the semi-permanent rose colored goggles that Ken had slapped on. 

The person in question came around a few minutes late, and the two of them walked to their destination while talking about nothing in particular. 

Their destination was a place called Mystikake. It appeared to be a bakery, with a very cute teal exterior with pink windows and white, lacey curtains. The logo was of a cupcake with the name of the shop written in icing and two winking witches on the sides. 

Ravi had to admit, it was adorable. Its cuteness and playfulness was very Ken, he could see why he liked the place. He didn’t really want to eat cake for dinner, but he didn’t want to turn down his crush’s hospitality, either. More than that, he was incredibly nervous.

“Ta-daaa! This is my favorite place to eat! They’ve got magic cake, it’ll really knock your socks off!” he said excitedly, his eyes sparkling.

“Magic cake? What’s that?”

“Oh, you don’t know? They make cakes here that’ll make you more confident, talented, handsome, anything you want really! And they taste _ really _good, too, you gotta try it!”

He did see why that could be appealing, but he was too wary to actually try any of that stuff. Besides, he couldn’t think of anything off the bat that he wanted to improve about himself- wait, was this a test?

“Y-yeah, sure. I’ll try some.”

“Okay then, it’s settled! Let’s go in!” he said, and opened the door dramatically, letting the little bell on the door announce his arrival. Or he would have left that job to the bell, if he could go 5 minutes without using his impressive pipes.

“Kariiin, Mariiin, I’m heeeere!” he called, waving frantically to someone in the back.

“Ooh, it’s Kennie! I’ll be right there, alrighty?” called a high-pitched, feminine-sounding voice from the back. “Just sit wherever you want, okay?”

“Okaaaay!” he called back, and tugged on Ravi’s sleeve to pull him inside. “C’mon, let’s go!”

“O-okay..” he said, trying to keep himself from totally fainting from the lethal amount of cute he’d been exposed to.

The two of them sat down at an ornate metal table next to the window as a cute girl with a long, brown ponytail and a big star earring on her left ear skated out to greet them, holding a couple menus in her hands. She was wearing an insanely frilly teal and pink outfit, matching the store, and spoke with a thick English accent.

“Hello hello! I’m Karin, and I’ll be taking care of you this evening! Hey Kennie, who’s your friend? He’s quite handsome!” she giggled, handing the two of them their menus.

“Oh, this is Ravi! He’s a friend from work, and we’re gonna be making a song together!”

“Ooh, a song! I sure hope it’s romantic, I always love those ballads you do. And you, Ravi? What kind of songs do you make?” she asked, smiling sweetly in his direction. She really was pretty, and almost reminded him of Ken with how she acted so cutesi-ly. It's no wonder that they were friends.

“U-uh, I make...rap?” he said, very unsure of himself. Leave it to him to lose his cool in front of a pretty girl. It was basically routine at this point.

“Ooh, well won’t that be an interesting combination! I’m very excited to see what you two come up with! Hey Marin, you’ve got to hear this! Kennie’s making another song!”

“Hold on, I’m a bit busy at the moment!” called another voice from the back.

“Oh, she’s so business-minded, as usual. Now then, what’ll it be for drinks?” she said, pulling out a notepad.

“I’ll have strawberry milk, as usual!”

Adorable.

“Uh, water?”

“Coming right up! Just sit tight, you two!” she said as she winked and skated off toward the back.

Ravi watched her back as she skated towards the back room, just totally shocked at how cute she was. Now that he looked around, the inside of the store was adorable too, though not really his style. 

Lots of pink flowers were placed around and on top of every table. It reminded him a little of Hongbin’s house, though there weren’t nearly as many plants here as there were there. The two girls were witches, right? What was the deal with witches and plants? The doorbell tinkled again, and the door opened.

“Hey Marin, I did some more research on the seals, and you’re _ not _gonna believe this.” said a familiar voice. Wait, was that-

“Hongbin?” Ravi whispered to himself. What was he doing here? He didn’t seem like the type of person that liked to eat sweet stuff.

“Ravi? What’re you doing here?” said the witch in question, echoing Ravi’s thoughts as he walked toward their table. “And who’s this? I’ve never met him.”

“Oh, this is...th-this is Ken. You know, the person I told you about?” he hinted, trying to tell Hongbin with his eyes to not make a big deal about the situation he was in. Unfortunately for him, Hongbin wasn’t very good at nonverbal cues.

“Oooh, so this is a date, huh?” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “Well, I was just here to talk with the owners, but if you want me to leave, then-”

“No. Stay.” Ravi said desperately, grabbing onto Hongbin’s coat sleeve. He really didn’t want Ken to get the wrong idea. Well, he supposed he wanted it to be the right idea, but he wasn’t going to tell anyone that.

At this, Hongbin raised an eyebrow and pulled a chair up on an empty side of the table, next to both of them.

“So you’re Ken, huh?” he asked, smiling and pointing directly at Ken’s face.

Ravi waited for a second for Ken to respond, but for some reason, he looked like his soul had just left his body. He was staring blankly, directly at Hongbin’s face. Suddenly, he made a movement and nudged Ravi’s side.

“Hey.” Ken whispered. “Is he...is he a real person?” he asked cautiously.

“Who, Hongbin? Yeah, of course.” he whispered back. That was weird, why would someone not think that Hongbin was a real person if he was sitting directly in front of them?

“Hold on a sec. I’m gonna check.” he whispered, and soon after, Ravi heard a THUNK from under the table.

“OW! What the hell was _ that _for?” yelled Hongbin, clutching his shin.

“Oh, sorry! I just had to check if you weren’t like, an angel or a ghost or something. You’re so pretty that I kinda forgot where I was for a sec! Whoops!” he said sheepishly, yet he was totally shameless.

“Geez, a regular compliment would’ve been fine, you know!” he grumbled, rubbing his leg again before deciding that he wasn’t critically injured.

Oh, right. He was so used to being around Hongbin that he’d forgotten how dazzling he was to fresh eyes. Maybe it was a bad idea to invite him over to the table, would Ken even pay attention to _him,_ now? Just as he was wondering these things, he heard a squeal from the back.

“Ooooh, did I just hear Hongbin come in? Wait a second, Beanie, I’ll get a menu for you right away!” she giggled.

“Geez sis, you’re going to scare away our other customers. _ I’ll _handle this one. You make the food.” said another voice, presumably Karin’s sister, as she came out. 

She was a tall, slim girl with a pixie cut and all-black clothes, stained with flour. She walked slowly on heeled shoes, holding another menu and the drinks they’d ordered earlier.

“I’m terribly sorry about that. Now then, my name is Marin and it looks like _ I’ll _be serving you tonight. Have you decided on an order?”

“I’ll just have a meat pastry.” said Hongbin, clearly a regular.

“I waaaant a strawberry cake!” said Ken, clearly a sweets addict.

“Uh-whatever you recommend, I guess.” said Ravi, clearly not knowing what he was doing.

“Alright, coming right up. Hm? Hongbin, is this the Ravi you were talking about the other day?” she said, pointing at said man with her pen.

“Yeah, the one and only. Don’t try anything, okay? He’s sensitive.”

“Hmmm, alright. I’ll hold back. This time.” she said, grinning mischievously, and headed back towards the back. Ravi really didn’t like the looks of that; he didn’t want to make enemies with a witch.

Silence filled the table when Marin went away, leaving the trio with a heavy air of awkwardness. He wished he could think of something, anything to say, when-

“So, I heard you tell fortunes.” said Hongbin, leaning over the table with one elbow. Oh thank goodness.

“Yep, yep! Why, are you in need of PsyKen’s divine assistance? I can give it for free!” he chirped, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a deck of cards. Wait, did he carry those everywhere with him?  
“Ah no, not really. Though I am curious to see how you do your fortunes.” he said, resting his head on his hand.

“Well, are you in for a treat! Hey Ravi, you wanna watch? I’ll do a really great one this time!”

“O-of course, why wouldn’t I?” Frankly though, he was a little scared of Ken's fortune telling process, so he scooted his chair back a little to avoid his face becoming a victim of one of Ken's accidental arm flails.

“Now then, what do you wanna know?”

“Huh, let’s see. I want you to tell me...what my love life will be like in the next few years.”

Well, that was a surprising question, coming from Hongbin. Did he actually want to date someone? It seemed out of character.

“Ooh, that’s a tough one! But I’m sure I can do it! Just give me a minute, mkay?”  
“Alright, I’ll be waiting.” Hongbin said and smirked, eyeing the fortune teller with a knowing expression.

“Hmmm...it seems the answers don’t lie in the cards this time! That’s really weird. Well, I’ll find another way! Ravi, give me your water.”

“Huh? Oh, o-okay.” he said, and hesitantly slid his glass over to Ken.

“Is there anything I can put in this?” he asked the witch, as if he was going to help him.

“I dunno, you’re the fortune teller. You decide.”

Ken decided on some leftover sprinkles he found on another table (gross), and sprinkled them in Ravi’s water glass, looking at them intently for a few minutes. All was silent as he watched the sprinkles naturally turn in the water, losing their color and eventually dissolving. Suddenly,

“I got it!” he yelled, slamming his fist on the table and making Ravi jump backwards again. That never ceased to startle him. He wondered if he’d ever get used to it.

“Oh? What do you have?”

“I predict...that you will be senselessly chased by people that want you for the rest of your life! But you’ll want nothing to do with any of them! If this keeps up, you won’t even _ have _a love life, which, I dunno, seems like something you’d want, actually? The sprinkles aren’t very clear.” he frowned.

Hongbin muttered a muffled ‘oh, thank god’ before clearing his throat and turning back to Ken.

“Not bad, I have to say. I have no idea how you got that from a bunch of floating sprinkles, but you’ve never met me before, so your powers clearly aren’t fake.”

“Yep yep! My fortunes always come true!” he said, beaming. “Hey, do you mind if I tell your fortune again? I dunno why, but the future is telling me something when I look at you. It’s like I’m getting kicked in the gut!”

Kicked in the gut? That didn’t sound pleasant at all.

“Eh sure, why not? Try your best.” he said, trying to hide his amusement behind a flat expression.

“Okay then, here we go. Ravi, you can come back now, you know! I’m not that scary!” he said , and pulled out his deck of tarot cards, spreading them over the table.

“T-that’s okay, I think I’ll sit over here.”

“Here’s your food, fresh and ready!” said Marin as she walked calmly toward the table, about to put the food on the table when she noticed the tarot cards. “Oh? Ken, are you doing a reading?”

“Yep! I’m getting some weird vibes from this guy, so I’m gonna try and read his future!”

“Well, _ that’s _ nothing unusual. I get weird vibes from Hongbin all the time, but I’d say it’s only due to his unflattering personality.”

“Marin, how could you!” he said, with fake shock and offense.

“I’m only kidding. Anyway, I’ll set these down on another table until you’re ready. I’m a mite curious about this reading, as well.”

“Are we doing a reading? Ooh, how exciting!” squee-d Karin, who sprinted from the back to join them at their tiny table. “Let me see, let me see!”

“Wowie, this is the first time I’ve had an audience! It’s making me a little nervous, should I do a stage greeting or something?”

“Ah, I dunno. Do what you want.” said Hongbin, who immediately regretted it when Ken started talking. 

“Ladieees aaaaaand gentlemeeeen! Welcome to PsyKen’s House of Wonder!” he said cheerily, waving to an imaginary audience. “Today, I will be doing a reading for _ this _unfortunate young man, who lives a loveless life! Oh, I wonder what his future will hold! I’m sure it’ll be a reading of the ages!”

“Alright never mind, please shut up now.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.” he pouted as he shuffled his cards and began to hover his hand over them, waiting for the right moment to turn them over.

“For your present, we have...this!” he said, and flipped over a Hermit card. “It seems like you’re chasing some grand truth right now! But you might be isolating yourself from others, so be careful. For the next, we have...this.” he said as he flipped over a Moon card. “Hmm...seems like you have a lot of insecurities.”

“I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me _ that.” _he said, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, be quiet! I’m trying to help! Your next card is...this one.” he said, and flipped over a Chariot card, in the reverse position. “Hmm…it seems like you’re losing control of something, whether it be your life or a relationship or whatever. But it could also mean that you need to be more comfortable with the control you’ve been given.”

“Really?” he said, looking pensive.

“Yeah. So these three cards together tell me that you’re looking really hard to find something, but you’re afraid that you can’t do it or of what you might find out, and you feel like you’re losing control of your situation because of it, right? My advice is to not take all this on by yourself! If you isolate yourself too much, you might find yourself farther from the truth than before. And don’t lose sight of the people that are important to you, because if you do, you might lose them. Or they might lose you, I dunno.”

Hongbin stared at him blankly, but in awe.

“W-was that too much? You don’t have to listen to my advice, but my cards are 100 percent legit!” he said, laughing sheepishly.

“That was amazing, Kennie! My heart was pounding the whole time!” squeaked Karin.

“Isn’t it? He’s pretty good.” said Ravi, feeling very proud, like it was his own accomplishment instead of Ken’s.

“Yeah, I gotta admit. That’s impressive. I mean, it wasn’t inaccurate, anyway.” said Hongbin, still looking pretty shocked.

“Aw, shucks! You guys are making me blush! Now then, shall I tell your future?” he said, eyes sparkling as he turned towards Hongbin again.

“Ah...no, that’s alright. I think I’d prefer not to know. But is there anything else you can do, by chance? With these divine powers?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Hmm? Anything else? Well, fortune telling’s what I’m really good at, but sometimes I can lift paper with my mind if I really concentrate!”

“Oh, really. Let’s see it, then.”

“Okay! Just give me a napkin or something and I’ll show you!”

Ravi was pretty impressed. He wouldn’t have believed Ken’s reading of Hongbin’s present if it weren’t for yesterday, when he displayed those exact feelings. He had to wonder if Ken really was psychic after all. 

It wouldn’t be too far out there, he _ did _ have a witch as a best friend, after all. Suddenly, he felt a tug on his pants leg. He looked down to see that N was trying to get his attention.

“What is it? I’m kinda busy right now.”

“I can’t be here any longer. Do you know how stressful it is to hide in the same room as _ four _ witches?”

“Four?” Ravi did a mental count. Besides Hongbin, obviously, there were only the two other witch girls who ran the bakery. He supposed that a couple other customers were in the building. Could one of them be a witch? It wasn’t impossible.

“Anyway, we need to go. Now.”

“Just a minute, I want to watch this.”

N grunted and retreated back into his shadow. As he turned back to the table, all eyes were on Ken, who looked like he was seriously concentrating. If he wasn’t trying to lift the paper, Ravi could swear he’d be trying to burn holes in it with his eyes. It didn’t look like anything was happening yet. Or so he thought. After a few more seconds, Ken let out a yell, and the paper napkin flew straight up into the air and balled itself up before falling back on the table. He stared, wide eyed and open-mouthed in shock. Did that just happen?

“Woah! Did that just happen?” said Hongbin, echoing his thoughts.

“That was incredible! No normal person should be able to do that!” Marin marveled.

“Seriously, even I couldn’t do that without a wand!” chirped Karin.

“Yeah, I’m pretty impressed with myself, too!” said Ken, soaking up the attention like a leaf soaks up the sun’s rays.

“Guys, wait a second. I think I know what’s going on here.” said Hongbin suddenly, stopping everyone with a wave of his hand.

“Hm? What is it?” asked Ken.

“Dude, what the hell. Why haven’t you been coming to the meetings?”

“Meetings? What meetings?” said Ken, oblivious.

“Ooh, do you mean the Association meetings?” asked Karin. “But he’s not a witch, so-wait, that’s impossible! Do you mean?”

“What? What? I dunno what’s going on!” chirped the not-witch.

“Do I have to spell if out for you or something?” asked Hongbin, more annoyed than he should be.

“Uh, yeah!”  
“You’re a witch, Ken.”

“I’m a what?”

“He’s a what?” echoed the twins.

“He’s a witch! He’s got magic powers! No human can do what you do with such accuracy, it’s crazy! You must’ve been born with future-seeing magic, that’s like, super rare!” said Hongbin, looking the most excited Ravi had seen him in years.

“Whaaaaaaaat? That’s insane! But wait, my parents weren’t witches or anything!”

“Sometimes it skips a generation. Heck, my grandmother was the best healing witch I ever knew; my magic was passed from her.”

“Oooohhh, does that mean I’ll get to learn to fly and set things on fire and fly?” he chattered.

“Hell yeah, you will! If you’ll agree to be trained by me, of course.” said Hongbin as he suddenly stood up, beaming brighter than the sun.

“Of _ course! _Who’d pass up an opportunity to become an actual wizard?”

“Witch.”

“Whatever!”

“Oooooh, that’s so exciting! I’ll have to get to work! Kennie, what kind of flowers would you like on your hat? Pink or yellow?” squealed Karin, scribbling something down on her notepad.

Ken? A witch? There was no way anyone could have predicted that, not even Ken. Now he understood what N meant by the four witches, but who would’ve thought? Ken, the adorable and somewhat famous ballad singer had actual magical powers. He could hardly convince himself it was true.

“_ Now _do you see what I mean? Let’s hurry up and get out of here, I’m feeling sick.” said the voice from below.

“Ah, sure. Whatever. Hey uh, Marin? Can I get this in a to-go box?”

“Hmm? Oh, yes! Of course! It’s almost closing time, anyway, but we were so distracted. This is just so exciting, you know. I’ll get you three boxes, right away.” she said, hurrying to the back.

Over on the other side of the table, Ken and Hongbin were talking excitedly about all the new spells Ken was going to learn, and how cool it’d be to have another witch friend, and how they were going to Hongbin’s house after this to start training right away.

He couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy deep in his heart. Though this revelation was exciting, this was supposed to be _ his _time to talk about a new song. 

Whatever. He supposed Hongbin was better looking and more interesting than he was, anyway- wait, what was he thinking? 

He sighed dejectedly as he got his pastry in a to-go box and left, making sure to leave a couple of bills on the counter to pay for it. Karin quickly mentioned before he left that the food was on the house tonight, but he didn’t want to be rude. He quickly left, making sure no one noticed his departure, and stepped on the next bus to get home, trying not to think about how boring a normal guy like him must seem to a group of witches. 

When he got to his apartment, he pulled up his phone and noticed a message from Hongbin.

_-Sorry I stole your date. I made him promise to take you out somewhere nicer next time. I also_ _made him promise to pay the bill to wherever you go. He seems like a nice guy, he’s a keeper._

He laughed to himself. Hongbin really was a true friend. He felt his phone buzz again. This time, it was a message from an unknown number. He cautiously pulled it up.

_ -Hi hi Rabee, this is Ken~ o3o. Beanie gave me ur number!! About today, I’m sowwy. Let’s talk again sometime, okaaaaaay? C u 2morro! \\(>3<)/ _

Wow, he was adorable even in text. Ravi felt the heat rise to his face as he typed out a quick reply, then airily sighed as he turned off his phone and put it away. 

Who knew Hongbin was such a wingman? Just as he was about to resign himself to the bliss of his shower and fluffy blankets, that familiar, annoying voice tried to pull him back to reality again when N popped out of his shadow in front of him.

“Did your dream boy _ have _to be a witch? You have really bad taste, you know.”

“I don’t really care.” he sang as he stood up and went to go get a towel.

“And ‘N’? Is that _ really _the best name you could come up with? I demand a chang- hey, are you even listening to me?”

“See you tomorrow, N~.” he said as he shut the door to his room, humming in satisfaction.

“Wha- Kim Wonshik, if you don’t get back out here right now, I’ll-”

He ignored the demon’s yelling as he twisted the shower knobs, letting out the hottest water he could handle as he let himself relax. Best day of his life.


	12. Chapter 12

The demon, dubbed N for now, lay on the couch in Ravi’s office. Once again, he was completely bored out of his mind.

The magazines sprawled out on the coffee table in front of him provided no entertainment value anymore; they’d already been given a twice-over, and some a thrice-over. He had also memorized the positions and details of every single poster on the wall, along with the newest one of a company girl group, put up a few days ago after the release of their comeback. (He found out, with great disappointment, that a comeback was not a snappy way to respond after an insult, but a new song or album put out by an idol group. Tragic, really, the former would’ve been much more exciting.)

And since he’d grown bored of drawing invisible pictures in the leather cushions with his finger twenty minutes ago, he’d exhausted all options. All semblance of entertainment was gone, except the occasions where he’d dramatically mimic his officemate whenever he groaned. That was a bit fun.

Finally, said officemate spun around in his wheely chair thing and gave him an exasperated look. N responded by groaning again and sticking his leg in the air to further increase the dramatic impact.

“Are you...bored or something?”

“Wow, how  _ ever _ did you guess?” he said, twisting his leg around in the air, to show it off. He had to admit, this human form was not bad at all. He could hardly believe he went from barely being able to move and walk to having advanced leg dexterity.

It just goes to show how amazing and powerful he was, even after great adversity, he thought with a smile.

Ravi responded to his sass with another groan, which N mimicked with great passion, smiling after he did so.

“Well, what do you want  _ me _ to do about it? I have to work hard to get money to get you clothes, and here I am, working hard.”

“Oh, really!” he said, marvelling at the human’s generosity for a moment before deciding it was deserved, and slumped back down on the couch.

“But this place is just  _ so  _ dull. Can’t you do your work somewhere else? Like, anywhere else?” he said, finally relieving the air above him of the great pleasure of containing his leg.

At this, Ravi sighed again. Disappointingly, it wasn’t passionate enough to be deserving of further theatrics.

“Need I remind you that you gave me a very unfortunate name, which I will have to keep until you either make a contract with me or I kill you out of frustration first?” said the demon, shaking his head. “I think a small favor like this should be easy.”

“Well, I guess a change of scenery every once in a while isn’t so bad..” the human said nervously, quickly bookmarking the tabs on his computer before closing them all up. He didn’t want another Ken break-in, as beneficial as the last one turned out to be.

“Correct answer. Then, I want to go out with you.” said N, bluntly.

This was met with a surprised blink and a slow ‘huh?’

“Hiding in your shadow forever won’t help me learn to blend in as a human, you know. I want to go out in public.”

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

“What?”

“Er, never mind.” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Was ‘going out’ some kind of human slang? He thought he should be more careful with his words, lest he say something offensive without actually meaning to. He wanted to be sure that all of his malice was purely intentional.

“Well uh, there’s a park nearby that I go to sometimes when I’m really stuck. I guess we can go there if you-”

“Perfect! Let’s go.” he said, shooting up from his sprawled- out position, the blood rushing to his head as he did so, causing him to stumble a little when his feet hit the ground. Damn these human forms and their need for verticality. He couldn’t help but notice that Ravi was looking at him with unnecessary concern.

“What? Are you worried about me or something? Quit wasting daylight and let’s go.” he said, turning to leave.

“Oh uh, okay. Just let me grab my-”

But it was too late. He was already out the door, stubbornly walking, unintentionally, in the opposite direction of the exit.

* * *

Being out in public was truly exhausting. N had forgotten about how many people there were in the city while living vicariously through Ravi’s shadow, and yelped every time he got nudged on the street. On top of that, a street vendor almost convinced him, through pure persuasive power, to buy a very tiny modern sundial, even though he didn’t have any currency. It was just like medieval times, except this city just so happened to not have sewage flowing through the streets. That was a nice upgrade. 

Though the smell coming from some areas nearly convinced him that the upgrade was only an illusion. Humanity hadn’t changed much since he’d last been out, apparently.

When he got to the park, however, all of his prior frustrations were blown away as he gazed upon the trees, their leaves blazing with familiar reds and oranges and yellows that he hadn’t seen in centuries. He sighed fondly, revelling in his reunion with nature. No matter how many times he saw autumn’s colors, they never lost their impact. He was glad his liberation was so fortunately timed; he didn’t know what he would have done if he’d been summoned in the bitter cold of winter. That’d just be too much to handle without proper winter clothes, especially if he ended up on the streets again.

“Impressed? It’s nice, isn’t it?” said the man next to him, disturbing his train of thought.

“Yes. I had almost forgotten how beautiful nature can be.” he said, turning his head to take in every bit of the sights around him, naturally including his companion, who was dressed for the weather in a peacoat and thin scarf. “I had also forgotten how atrocious humanity could be. Did you see that guy earlier? What made him think I wanted to buy his badly-made ‘watches’?!”

Truthfully, he was very interested in the idea of a tiny time-telling device that could fit on a person’s wrist. The days of sundials were over, it seemed. However, when Ravi informed him that it was a “knockoff,” he got really angry, assuming that the man in front of him wanted to knock him out. If it weren’t for Ravi physically pulling the angry demon away from the imagined battleground, he would’ve gotten the first blow, too.

“Uh yeah, they...do that. Sorry, guess I should’ve warned you.” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck once again, feeling bad that he let the situation escalate that quickly.

“It’s alright. There is much I don’t know about this world, it’s only natural that a few details would escape your notice.”

“I guess I should also tell you not to stare at people when you walk by, either. They take it as a challenge for some reason.”

“Good to know. I was wondering why those punks by the convenience store wanted to fight so badly.” he said, recalling that he had accidentally given a group of teenagers blocking the convenience store a once-over when they passed by. After he had raised an eyebrow at them suspiciously, wondering what kind of ritual they were performing by making the door open and close repeatedly, he noticed one adolescent holding another one back as he yelled a challenge. 

He assured them that lowly beings such as them weren’t worth his time as he heard them shout from behind, but he would have liked to see the little delinquent try and take him down. It honestly would have been quite entertaining.

“Er, yeah. Let’s find a spot to sit down. Just, don’t do anything else weird, okay?”

“Me? Weird? Never.”

He got an amused snort in response, and followed after Ravi as he started walking down the asphalt path.

While he followed behind, he looked up a moment and stared in awe at the leaves above him, letting his gaze linger longer as he took in how the sunlight made the colors look even more vibrant than they had from the entrance. The gentle wind shook the trees above him, causing the delicate leaves to break from their branches and softly dance to the ground in a rhythm that simultaneously felt designed and yet utterly arbitrary. As a leaf fell down in front of him, Ravi reached in front of him and caught it almost reflexively, and then held it to the side facing N like he wanted to hand it to him. He flinched back a little at the sudden movement.

“Here you go.” he said bluntly, holding out his gift.

“What? Why would I want a leaf? It has no monetary value, correct?”

“Hm? Oh right, you wouldn’t know. When you catch a leaf as it falls from a tree, you can make a wish. Or something like that, I dunno.”

“Huh?” N blinked in surprise. He knew how strongly humans held onto their superstitions, but he’d never been on the receiving end of a good one. The fact that one so pleasant and harmless was being shared with him was touching, and a bit mind-boggling. People usually didn’t do that with demons.

“I’m sorry about the other day, so this is like-well, it’s just something someone told me a while ago, it’s no big deal.”

“Very well, I’ll accept your offering of dying foliage.” he said, snatching the leaf out of Ravi’s hand. It was bright red, with some orange and yellow splotches on the sides, coming toward the middle. He briefly wondered if there was a way to preserve such beauty even after autumn had long ended, but shook the idea. There was no reason to keep it after today. Still, even though he knew the leaf was objectively worthless, he continued to spin it by its stem, admiring it as they continued to walk along the path. He noticed many different kinds of people, all somehow different than the ones in the city just outside the park gates. These people looked more relaxed somehow, and he couldn’t blame them. Though he could still hear the bustling noises of the city outside, there was no doubt that nature had the power to make anything more relaxing. He’d missed being outdoors.

“Up there, that’s my usual spot. We’ll go there.” said Ravi, pointing to a spot on a large hill, overlooking a small pond.

“Oh? I suppose you do have some taste, after all.” he joked. Truthfully, considering how much of a masochist his companion seemed to be, he was expecting a bench full of splinters or something.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” he said, looking a little hurt.

“Absolutely nothing, let’s go.” he said, placing the leaf in his back pocket as he began to make his way up the hill.

As he made his way up, he realized just how long it had been since he’d gotten any kind of exercise. Even though he conquered the challenge of re-teaching himself how to walk the other day, walking up a hill was a completely different kind of challenge; one his legs did not approve of in the slightest. 

He found himself straining and whispering encouraging words to himself to keep him going, until he caught Ravi looking down on him from the top of the hill. How embarrassing, it wasn’t even  _ that  _ steep of an incline.

“What?! Are your legs made of steel or something?” he yelled, defending himself from Ravi’s non-existent snark.

“Do you...need some help?” N couldn’t see his facial expression, but if he was laughing, he was going to get quite a nasty surprise when he got up this hill. 

If he got up this hill.

“No! What on earth, makes you think that?” he panted, staring at the peak of the summit defiantly, though his hands were on his knees in an attempt to keep his legs from collapsing.

“Oookay then,” called his companion, putting his hands up in resignation, “I’m just gonna start working here then, okay?”

“Yeah, whatever!” he yelled, turning to the ground again, “Come on, you useless pieces of meat! Do your jobs!” he whispered harshly, smacking his thighs like he was trying to kickstart a horse.

After a few weird looks from passersby and a lot of blood and sweat, (but no tears), he finally made his way to the top of the hill and flopped down next to Ravi, who was listening to music and writing something on a notepad. When Ravi felt the impact next to him, he took an earbud out and looked at the demon quizzically.

“You really don’t get out much, do you?”

“What do you think I had in my vessel of imprisonment besides unending darkness, a fitness coach?” he grumbled, squinting angrily at the sky as he blocked the bright sun with the back of his hand. 

Centuries of total darkness had done nothing to get him used to the sun again. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to lie in it for a while, just to get his body used to it. It had been a long time since he’d gotten enough free time to sunbathe, after all. He revelled in his current freedom and ability to relax, and his eyelids fluttered shut and he let himself fall asleep, comfortably sprawled out in the soft grass and crunchy leaves.

* * *

POOMPH. N awoke suddenly to the feeling of something very fast and rubbery pelting him right in the stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him.

“What in the hell was that?!” he cried between coughs, looking around for whatever had the audacity to wake him from his peaceful slumber. The commotion was even enough to break Ravi out of whatever trance he was in.

“Hm? What is it?” he mumbled, removing his earbuds, and craned his neck to find the source of the disturbance. 

He got up and shuffled over to a rubber ball, totally dwarfed it in his large hands as he picked it up and turned around, looking for the owner.

N’s eyes lighted on two terror-stricken small children standing several yards away.

“I think  _ they’re  _ the culprits.” he said, pointing in their general direction.

At this, Ravi whispered a small “oh” and shuffled closer to the children, looking exactly like a self-conscious penguin as he did so.

“Hi, is this yours?” he said softly as he approached them. 

He couldn’t get close though, as the children took two steps back with every step he took forward. N couldn’t see his expression, but he could bet he was confused as he squatted to the ground and just sat there, bouncing the ball up and down. Though he first thought that Ravi was trying to claim the ball, he then bounced it in the children’s direction, very softly so as not to pelt them in their tiny faces. A pity, really.

One of the children stepped forward to claim the ball, but when she took it, she slowly backed away to her original position, never taking her eyes off the person crouched on the ground.

“Aw, kids are always afraid of me. I dunno why, I’m not a bad guy.” he said sadly as he looked down at the ground between his legs. N wasn’t sure why, but Ravi’s tone of voice, which sounded remarkably similar to a kicked puppy, brought forth pity in him.

“Maybe you just need to look a little more vulnerable. Children love to take advantage of that.” he said as he picked himself up and walked over to where Ravi was crouching.

“What do you mean?”

“Watch this.” he said, and called to the children.

“Aw c’mon, this guy’s not scary! He’s really just a big pushover, see?” he said as he very casually used a lot of his strength to push Ravi over where he crouched, causing him to roll down the hill with a desperate scream. He cackled with amusement as he watched him roll; maybe now he’d know a fraction of N’s suffering.

“See? I bet even you could do that! I wasn’t even trying!” he giggled, beckoning for the kids to come over. When he did, they gained a light in their eyes and rushed over, watching Ravi climb back up the hill.

“Oww, what’d you do  _ that _ for?” he said, disgruntled, but stopped once he saw the two kids looking at him expectantly. He stood up and paused for a second when one of them began to push on his legs. He stared at them with a confused expression before looking back up to N, who also shot him an expectant look.

“Well? You’re not going to disappoint them, are you Mr. Pushover?”

Ohhhh, now he got it.

He fell down dramatically, bordering on melodrama, and rolled down the hill again, screaming a lot louder than before.

The kids were absolutely ecstatic, giggling and jumping up and down as they watched the poor man climb up the hill again. When Ravi made it to the top, the other one pushed on his legs and sent him down the hill. Rinse and repeat. This cycle continued for quite some time, until N felt like his lungs were going to burst from laughter.

He hadn’t seen anyone purposely make themselves look like this foolish in ages. Even the court fools he encountered long ago could learn a thing or two from Ravi. But. unfortunately, the fun had to end when Ravi trudged up the hill once more, panting, his clothes green from grass and bloodied from well, blood, looking like he’d just lost a fight with approximately 1,500 blades of grass and a few very well-placed pebbles.

“Aw, it looks like Mr. Pushover is tired of being pushed around. Oh well, them’s the breaks.” he said to the disappointed-looking kids, who whined an ‘awwwww’ in unison.

“Yeah, I gotta...gotta rest.” panted Ravi, crumpling to the ground in exhaustion.

One of the children approached him and he reflexively flinched backwards, but instead of pushing him down the hill, the small girl patted him on the head and said a quick ‘thank you’ before running off with her friend.

As N watched them go, he noticed that Ravi was smiling, looking totally starstruck. He couldn’t help but smile, too.

“Ah, children are cute, aren’t they? It’s really a shame. In a few short years, they’ll grow up to be just as rotten as everyone else.” said N, shaking his head in cynical amusement.

“Huh? You don’t know that, they seemed like really nice kids. And plus, not everyone’s awful.”

“No no, trust me. I’ve seen it happen numerous times. It’s just the natural progression of humanity.” he said, sighing as he pensively stared into nothingness. “If you haven’t figured that out now, then you will one day.”

A heavy silence filled the air, until N heard the person behind him shuffle and pull himself to his feet, though with a bit of struggle.

“N? Are you o-”

“Me too, me too!” came a deeper, definitely  _ not _ child-like voice from a huge figure barrelling toward them, scaring both N and Ravi out of their skins. The two could only step back in pure terror as the lanky figure ran up and pushed Ravi backwards, causing him to roll down the hill once more. For the second time that day, N felt true pity as he saw him roll for the umpteenth time.

* * *

“So, uh...what’re you doing here, Hyuk?” said Ravi, rubbing the cut on his arm from where it caught on a stick after Hyuk pushed him. That kid was strong, stronger than at least N and the efforts of those small children combined. 

He felt like he’d been hit by a truck; it was a small wonder that he hadn’t broken anything on the way down.

“Hyung, I’m really sorry.” he apologized for about the hundredth time in the last couple of minutes.

“H-hey, don’t worry about it, okay? I’m not hurt, see?” he said, smiling to show that he really wasn’t hurt, though his bloodied appearance said otherwise. Truthfully, the only new wound he’d received was to his pride, from how loud he screeched, but the collateral damage he got from those kids made him look a whole lot worse than he actually was.

“Okay…” Hyuk mumbled, looking to the ground.

His eyes darted to N again. He’d noticed that N had been glaring at Hyuk the entire time, looking like he wanted to say something but was mercifully holding himself back. He had no idea what he was angry about, but he didn’t want another repeat of the incident at Hongbin’s house. Finally, N stood up and put his hands on his hips, glaring down at the guilty-looking teenager.

“Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?” he said, grinning widely.

Hyuk looked up at him, totally puzzled.

“If by ‘a while,’ you mean my entire life, then yeah. It has been a while.”

Ravi flinched. He didn’t want a fight to break out, and positioned himself between the two.

“Oh, how silly of me! Of course you wouldn’t recognize me, I’ve changed so much.” he said smugly, gesturing down his body with his hands, showing off as he struck a model pose.

“Uh, right. Who are you supposed to be, again?” he said, looking at Ravi, signaling with his eyes that this guy was totally out of his mind.

“Oh right, this is uh-”

“I’m the demon you met the other day, remember? Silly!” he said, and spun around.

“Ooooh.” he said in complete understanding, picking himself up and scooting back a bit. “You’re...not going to try and kill me again, are you?”

“Well now, that all depends on-” Ravi instantly gave him a look of desperation in an attempt to stop him from saying or doing anything stupid. Hyuk seemed like he had enough to deal with. Surprisingly, it worked, and the demon changed his demeanor in the blink of an eye.

“I mean, of course not! What do you think I am, some kind of savage? I’ve already put everything behind me.” he said, waving his hand in resignation.

Oh, thank goodness.

“Oh, okay.” he said, scooting himself a little more forward. Not enough to completely close the distance he had put between them, but enough to tell that he was trying.

“Anyway, do you come to this park often, Hyuk? I haven’t been here in awhile, but I like to come while I’m stuck when writing lyrics or something. It clears my head.” said Ravi.

“Lyrics? Wait, you write songs?”

“Oh yeah, I guess I hadn’t told you. I work as a composer for an entertainment company.”

At this, Hyuk’s eyes lit up faster than a neon sign getting flipped on at sundown.

“Wait, so you write songs? For  _ idols _ ? Ooh, ooh, have you written for any that I’d know?”

Ravi was taken aback at the sudden stream of questions, and could do nothing but emit an unintelligent ‘uuhhhh..’ But that didn’t stop Hyuk.

“Wait, does that mean you work in the same place as famous people? Like, do you get to talk to them?”

“Uhhh…”

“He told me that he sometimes gets to say ‘hi’ when he passes them, but really, that’s just a waste. Do you know he wrote a song for 999 recently but doesn’t have any autographs? I mean, seriously.”

“Woah, you  _ what?  _ That’s crazy! I love all their stuff!”

“Right? Which member is your favorite?”

“Uh, it’s pretty hard to decide, but honestly? My favorite is…”

Ravi could scarcely keep up with all the excitement going on in front of him. Weren’t these two enemies just a few minutes ago? Now, they were chatting excitedly about idol groups like they had known each other for ages. The transformation was shocking. 

He was also surprised at just how much N knew about idol groups, considering he had only been on Earth for like, a week and a half. Though he supposed anyone could become obsessed with something if it was the only source of entertainment they knew of. Maybe he’d actually show him a music video sometime.

Since N had demonstrated his ability to have a civil conversation with someone other than him, Ravi didn’t want to interrupt. 

So, he sat quietly and listened as the two of them chattered about their interests.

Oddly enough, the demon almost seemed like a normal human, though his interests (other than idol groups) were a bit outdated by today’s standards. Like, no one had made candles since the wondrous invention of electricity. But unfortunately, the fun had to end when the sun started to set over the horizon, turning the pond into a glassy orange mirror. Despite its benevolent appearance during the daytime, the park was actually pretty dangerous at night. Fortunately, Hyuk seemed to notice the passage of time as well.

“Ah, shoot! I need to buy dinner! I needed to get extra today for mom, too, how’d I forget?” he yelled as he quickly stood up, nearly falling over in the process.

“D-do you have money for food?” asked Ravi, remembering the gopchang encounter. If didn’t have enough to pay for decent convenience store food, he wondered how his family expected him to get food for all of them.

“Well yeah, I guess...I dunno.” he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and pulling out a few bills and a bunch of coins. He stared at them with a pensive expression, before sighing and putting them back into his pockets. “Well, I guess I have enough if I can split something from the convenience store three ways.”

Convenience store food again? For an entire family? Ravi wasn’t gonna let that fly.

“Hey, let’s get some food, okay? Anything you want. I’ll buy it for you!” he said, pushing himself to his feet and brushing the extra grass off of his pants.

“Hyung…” he said, his eyes sparkling, but shook his head. “No, wait. I don’t wanna be a burden on you or anything, so I’ll get it by myself.”

“Wha-no way, you deserve some good food. And besides, I’m a composer for idols, I’m practically loaded!” he lied, noticing N shoot him another icy glare. Man, he was really good at those.

“R-really? Well, let’s just go somewhere cheap then. I don’t wanna be responsible for you going totally broke, okay?”

Thank goodness, he bought it. Ravi sighed with relief, and gestured to N that he needed to wait a little longer, which was returned with a short huff. Geez, you’d think an immortal of all people would know that things always happened eventually. Spending a little money now would be fine.

“Let’s go! I know a great place!” said Hyuk, tugging on Ravi’s sleeve in impatience.

“Haha, okay. Let’s go.” he turned around and began to walk down the hill, but noticed that N was still sitting at the top, staring at the two. “Are you coming?”

“Yes, but I’m  _ not  _ walking down this hill. It’ll kill my legs.”

Ravi sighed and put his hand to his head. Did he have to be such a drama queen? Then, he noticed that Hyuk had a particularly mischievous glint in his eye.

“So, you don’t wanna walk, huh?” he snickered as he approached the demon slowly, so as not to startle him.

“No, I don’t want to walk.” he repeated.

Hyuk giggled to himself as he approached him from behind and eyed Ravi with a knowing look.

“Alright, let’s take the Ravi way!” he laughed, and pushed N with a lot of force from behind, causing him to yelp and roll down the hill, just as Ravi had done so many times before. Hyuk quickly followed, and curled into a ball so he could roll down as well, no force needed. Ravi, on the other hand, quickly ran down the hill and onto the path, in the opposite direction of the demon. He liked to take risks in life sometimes, but he was not going to risk losing his soul in some kind of fiery rage. Not tonight.


	13. Chapter 13

The evening with Hyuk went well. The three of them went to a burger place, and Ravi bought five portions of food, two extra for Hyuk’s parents.

N was very impressed with the idea of having so many different types of ingredients in one meal, though Ravi assured him that a hamburger with lettuce and tomato was nothing impressive.

Hyuk thanked him profusely the entire way to the train station, which Ravi walked him to since it was getting dark.

When Hyuk went on his way, Ravi hoped he would be okay on his own.

He really was starting to worry about that kid, since he sounded like he was living in a difficult situation. But Hyuk didn’t say anything about it today, and Ravi assumed that no news was good news. 

Other than that evening, life was mercifully uneventful for the next few days. He was able to muster enough inspiration, even with the demon’s distractions, to write the lyrics to a couple songs and a melody line to another. They were all good too, at least by his standards. Finally, payday came, and though he was ecstatic that he had gotten a bigger paycheck than normal for all his extra work, his excitement absolutely paled in comparison to N’s enthusiasm.

“So this single piece of paper means you’re a rich man? Is validation really all you need? What convenient times you live in!” he sang as he held Ravi’s paycheck close to his face, examining it with great care.

“Uh, no. That’s a check. I have to cash it at a bank to actually get money.”

“Oh, I see. That’s boring.” he deadpanned, and handed it back. So much for that enthusiasm.

“But it will get me money, though. At least enough to get you some new clothes.”

“Hm, it’s a pity. I was really starting to get used to these. They are quite nice, you know.” he said, pulling lightly on his collar, demonstrating how baggy the red sweater was on him. “But I’m not an enemy of new fashions. Let’s go right away.” he said, and started walking quickly toward the door. But then he turned around, waiting for Ravi to get up.

“Well? Are you coming or what?”

“Huh? Oh-yeah, let’s go.” Ravi said, shocked that N had actually waited for him.

* * *

“Ooh my god, I’ve never seen so many garments in one place before! Do a thousand seamstresses live here? How are there so many clothes?” N said excitedly as he went around, feeling every piece of clothing on every rack he could find.

“And they’re so soft, too! Ooh, what’s this? I could have killed for something like this in my previous lives!”

“Please stop, we’re in public.” he said, the heat rising to his face when he saw N very closely examining and touching some frilly lingerie on a mannequin. 

The demon was so composed in everyday life that Ravi occasionally forgot just how culturally ignorant he was. Moments like this reminded him very harshly that his companion really  _ hadn’t  _ been outdoors in centuries. What he wouldn’t give to die of some divine machinations right now.

“Well then, what  _ should  _ I do? I’ve never been to a cloth haven before, I’m unaware of how to act.” he said, mercifully stepping away from the mannequin he had violated.

“Clothes store. It’s a clothes store.”

“Whatever.”

He sighed and covered his face. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.

“I dunno, just go find something and bring it to the fitting room so you can try it on. Just don’t take the tags off.”

“That’s simpler than I expected. Alright, I’ll do that!” he said as he ran off into the depths of clearance rack hell. Ravi really hoped his explanation was enough for him to understand the situation.

“I’ll wait by the fitting room!” he called in a last minute effort to make sure N wouldn’t lose him.

He looked up at the ceiling and walked to the benches by the fitting room. He hoped that whatever he was getting into wasn’t going to be as bad as he was dreading.

After a while, N managed to find the fitting room on his own, and carried a practical mountain of clothes with him. 

Oh no, it was worse.

“Well, where do I get started?” he said with a glint in his eye similar to a middle aged woman that had just pulled out fifty coupons, knowing in her heart that she was about to save big money and con some poor, helpless cashier out of their break time. Ravi winced.

“Uh, I-I think the limit that you can bring in is 10 at a time.”

“What? This is an outrage. I was never informed of this.” he said, just like said middle-aged woman, adjusting the mountain of clothes in his hands to prevent it from falling over.

“I forgot, sorry.” Well, it was more like Ravi was one of those people that picked out two or three things at a time and went to the fitting room in small trips. But he wouldn’t say that, in fear of N getting mad. 

He had practically forgotten that there were people who would go back to the room with piles and piles of clothes and stay back there for hours. That was why they made the garment limit, after all.

His apology was met with a quick huff.

“Well if I can’t bring them all in, then what am I supposed to do with all  _ these?”  _ he said as he dropped the mountain on the ground, causing them to go just about everywhere. Ravi prayed silently that there were no attendants nearby; he  _ really _ didn’t want to get banned from another store. A magical mishap with Hongbin had caused the other accident, but this was just pure, preventable disrespect.

“I’ll just hold onto these until you try on ten, okay? And then you can try on ten more.” he said. quickly dropping to the floor and haphazardly folding clothes, trying to clean up as quickly as possible.

“Fine. Wait here, then.” he said, taking a small pile of clothes off the summit and waltzing into a room after he got a room tag. Ravi noticed that the fitting room attendant looked at N oddly, but shook it off. Anyone would be looking at him weirdly right now, since he clearly had no idea what he was doing.

He sighed and continued folding clothes, noticing that all of them were unusually flashy for men’s clothes. He hadn’t recalled seeing anything like this the last time he came here, but he thought that if the store was upgrading, then he should go check it out. However, when he folded the first skirt in the pile, he realized. These were all from the women’s section. Oh.

“Kim Ravi, look at this! I had no idea tunics had become so fashionable! Isn’t this cute? A little tight around the waist, though.”

Ravi turned around slowly, afraid of what he was going to see. And sure enough, it was exactly as he feared.

N had come out of the fitting room wearing a very frilly, pink dress with lots of ribbons in the front and back. To be honest, it actually looked good on him, but he could tell from the stretch around the shoulders and how he struggled to breathe that it was not made for his body type. At all.

“What do you think, hm? Stunning?”

“Well, it’s….I’m totally speechless.” he said, looking around the store uncomfortably.

“Ah, perfect! I should definitely get this one, then. However, it doesn’t feel like it fits quite right. Hmm, what a shame.”

“R-right. Well, you see, um.. It doesn’t fit because-”

“What? Are you saying it’s because I’m too fat? Hmph, how cruel of you to say that to someone so bluntly.”

“No, um, it’s just that-”

“What is it, then? I’m listening.” he said as he tapped his foot impatiently.

Ravi breathed in slowly, mentally preparing himself.

“You’re wearing women’s clothes. They’re not made to fit men.”

“What’s wrong with-oh, that’s right. I’m not a woman this time, am I?” he said, looking pensively at the ground. “I wondered why this tunic looked like it was made for a snake with indigestion.” he said, making an hourglass motion with his hands.

Ravi rolled his eyes at the remark, and tried his best to explain himself.

“That’s, well, a dress. Guys don’t usually wear those? Or these.” he said, holding up a floral-printed skirt.

“What?! They don’t?! But they’re so comfortable, when did they stop?” he said, looking totally betrayed.

“P-please calm down, you’re being really loud…” Ravi felt the stares of people passing by, and wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear forever. “I mean, you  _ can _ wear them, but you’ll probably stand out more than you want.”   
“Fine. I’ll change. But what am I supposed to do now?”

“I dunno, find clothes in the men’s section? I’ll come with you this time, just...take off that dress.”

“Ooh, so forward. Alright then, I’ll be back~”

Ravi sighed and buried his face in his hands, but not before quickly calling, “And don’t forget to put your  _ own  _ clothes back  _ on!” _ which was met with a surprised “Alright!”

After waiting for about twenty minutes, which was much needed in order to shake off the previous embarrassment, he started to get worried. Then, as he heard some disgruntled noises and some banging on the walls of one of the fitting rooms behind him, he got even more concerned.

“Hey, are you okay in there?”

“Yes, I’m great. Just peachy!” called a very strained voice from the inside.

“Well, if you say so, I guess.” he said, slowly turning away from the room, when he heard a loud bang and a couple curses from the same room. Panicked, he stood up quickly and ran to the room, knocking on the door.

“I’m coming in, okay?”

“No, wait-”

He opened the door to find the demon, with one arm through the leg hole, and one of the ribbons tying the back together hooked around his neck, looking totally flustered as he tried to pull his arm out. He noticed the demon’s face turn red as he cleared his throat and slowly spoke.

“I seem to be a bit...stuck.”

“How did you even  _ do  _ this?” he cried, working to find just where on earth the best place to start untying the massive knot N had somehow gotten the dress in was.

“I don’t know, how are people  _ supposed  _ to get out of these without cutting the ribbon? Because I don’t see any possible way out.”

“Oh my god, just- Hold still, okay? I’ll get you out of there.” he said, and quickly shut the fitting room door to begin fumbling with the knot. He wondered how N had even gotten into the dress in the first place, if all the ribbons were already tied up. Wouldn’t it be impossible? Speaking of impossible, his fingers were way too big to even begin to untie this dainty, noose-like mass of ribbon. 

After fumbling uselessly with his hands, he pulled out his house keys and tried to nudge a strand up enough to loosen the thing. Thankfully, he was able to loosen one string, and the rest followed as he untied the rat’s nest to the best of his abilities. Finally, the demon was free from his prison of ribbon.

“Can you get it off, now?”

“Let me see...yes!” he said, slipping out of the dress with ease and throwing it on the ground in triumph. “Oh thank goodness, I didn’t know what I was going to do if I’d been trapped in there. I mean I’ve had less fashionable prisons, but still.”

“Ah, you’re welcome. It’s no problem-hm?” 

He noticed a circular mark about the size of a baseball in the middle of N’s back.

On closer inspection, it was a tattoo. A very intricate one, with a lot of complex-looking letters and patterns drawn around the edges and filling the center. 

“Hey, I didn’t know you had a tattoo. It’s pretty nice.”

“A what? What is that?” asked the demon, turning back around to face the mirror as he pulled on the pants Ravi had loaned him.

“That mark, on your back. You don’t know about it?”

“What mark? No, of course I don’t. I can’t see it!” he said, turning around and around like a dog trying to catch its own tail.

“You don’t know? It looks like it hurt a lot when you got it...let me take a picture.” he said, and pulled out his phone and took a quick picture of N’s back, only to quickly put it away so he wouldn’t get in trouble with security. “Here.”

As the demon looked at the picture, his eyes widened for a second, but returned to normal within seconds. 

“Hah, doesn’t that explain a lot.”

“It-it does?”

“Yes, it explains everything,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head. “I’m not going to tell you what that means, though.” he chuckled.

“Aw, no fair.”

“By the way, who said you could keep standing in here?” he said, cocking his hip, and tossed the previously rejected dress over Ravi’s face.

“Oh, right. My bad.” 

The blood rushed to his face again, though it was covered by the dress, and he showed himself out, returning to the bench where he sat before. He was just beginning to pile the clothes up in the return bin when N came out again, looking a bit irritated.

“Alright, where’s the men’s section?” he said, crossing his arms.

“Uh, I don’t actually know. They’ve kinda changed things around since last time, so-”

“Ah, whatever. Excuse me miss, where is the men’s section?” he said, turning to a very realistic-looking mannequin sporting denim overalls. As expected, she gave him no reply.

“Um, hello? I asked you a question?” he said, growing more and more annoyed with every passing second.

Again, another silence.

“Is it because I look better in women’s clothing than you? Well, pardon  _ me _ for being beautiful. I spent a very long time on this form, you know.” he huffed, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently.

Ravi didn’t know whether he should speak up or laugh at this nonsense. Finally, he decided that speaking up was the less dangerous option.

“She’s-pff, she’s a mannequin, N. She can’t talk.”

“Oh. Of course. No real person would dare remain silent in the face of such charming beauty.”

At that, Ravi snorted and quickly walked in the opposite direction. It was all he could do to avoid bursting into laughter right then and there.

* * *

After N had rebuilt his previous mountain with new clothes, Ravi sat back down in the chair outside the fitting rooms, waiting for whatever the results would be, this time. 

Hopefully the demon had enough sense to at least attempt looking normal, if he even knew what that looked like. Ravi wasn’t even sure  _ he _ knew what that looked like.

While he waited, his eyes wandered until they rested on one of the store’s TVs. 

And thank goodness they had them, Ravi could only imagine how many souls had been saved through this small addition. The TV was currently turned to some trashy news station, which didn’t have that much entertainment value, but it had been like, a half an hour since N had gone in, and he was bored enough to watch anything. 

The headlines weren’t anything unusual. There were stories about some political scandal, some tragedies and unsolved cases (Ravi usually had to turn away at these parts, he felt too bad for the people involved), and on and on.

There was one headline that caught his eye, however. 

“Mystery of Stolen Artifact Continues; Just what are we looking for?” 

He gulped and silently prayed to every single deity he could think of that the stolen artifact wasn’t the same one he accidentally broke. The headline got larger on the screen, and an interview started to play. 

Ravi found himself being drawn in by morbid curiosity, but cautioned himself by peeking through his fingers to see the TV, in case he needed to quickly look away.

On the screen, a woman who appeared to be an archaeologist sat next to a heavily-made up reporter, looking at him with thinly-veiled disdain.

“Yes, this is Lee Min-jun with Sens-news, bringing  _ you  _ the newest sensations every day! Today I’m here with semi-famous archaeologist, Mary Evans, who is going to talk to us about some kind of artifact that was stolen recently. Now tell me, Mary, how could something so old be a new sensation? I have to wonder why this particular artifact was so quick to attract news coverage.” he said cheerfully as he tilted his mic toward his interviewee.

“Well, I must tell you that this artifact was a sensation long before it got stolen. It’s a shame that now, of all times, is when it gets the most attention.”

“Uh-huh. Right. And tell us, just how was this artifact a ‘sensation’ in your eyes? I’m not an archaeology buff myself, and I’m sure our viewers would like to know, too.”

“Well, you see,” she started, her eyes beginning to sparkle as she did so, “This artifact, this  _ vessel, _ was said to contain some kind of negative power, and caused its many owners misfortune wherever it went, and-”

“Really! What kinds of misfortune? Failed love? Bankruptcy? Sudden death?”

“If you would let me finish _ ,  _ then maybe you would know.” she said bluntly, and continued.

“But the answer to that question is all of the above. Though not every owner has documented their experiences after obtaining this vessel, the general trend is that many experienced misfortunes that eventually caused their demise.”

“Wow! That’s some scary stuff. Who knew archaeology also dealt with the occult?” he laughed.

“It’s not something that frivolous.” she said, with a fake laugh.

“Right, of course. Another question. Do you think that this vessel’s ‘misfortune’ caused itself to get stolen? How’s that for a theory?”

“Impossible.” she said very matter-of-factly.

“Oh? Nothing’s impossible, Miss Evans, if I do say so. But you seem convinced, so please! Tell us your reasoning!”

“My reasoning is that all documentation of it stopped about 200 years ago, and so did the incidents of misfortune. Even I doubted that the object we obtained was the same thing, but there’s very real evidence that it was, in fact, the very same cursed object.”   
“And what’s that?”

“Well as you can see- hey, pull up a picture, would you?-”

“You heard her.”

As the picture was pulled up, Ravi put his hands up to his face again. Yep, that was exactly the artifact that had been shoved into his possession just a couple short weeks ago. Was it really cursed?   
“As you can see, there are several sticker-like attachments on the surface of the vessel, randomly decorating the outside.”

“Yes, I do see. They look really mismatched, don’t they? Kinda makes the whole thing look hideous. No wonder it was cursed.” 

“Aesthetic beauty has nothing to do with it. The Hope Diamond was supposedly cursed too, after all. Anyway, the sticker-like pieces on the surface are in an ancient language, which we found to be Ancient Nordic. We were able to date the papers, and found that the circular papers are about 500 years old and were likely from Norway, of course. But that’s not all.”

“It’s not?”

“Nope! That’s just the first part! These stickers right here, the rectangular ones, are much newer and are written in an older form of Japanese. When the stickers were dated, we found that they are about 200 years old. What’s more, I was able to speak with some shrine workers on the subject, and they recognized them as ancient purification seals. Whether this is a coincidence with the vessel’s disappearance in history is still a mystery, but it’s quite a strong connection, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes, I would say! Though I must admit, I’m a little disappointed that it’s still not cursed.”

“I think it still has a very mysterious aura. I just wish I’d gotten to study it more..”

“Yes, I’m sure we all wish we could see it for ourselves now. But such is fate! Sometimes we don’t appreciate things until they’re gone.”

“I agree.”

“Anyway! This has been Lee Min-jun with Sens-news, who brought  _ you  _ today’s newest sensation! Signing off!”

After that, it cut back to the main newscaster, who gave a summary of the interview as if Ravi hadn’t just watched it.

He could hardly believe it, though. N’s pot was famous? And it was a cursed item?

Well, he supposed he could believe that part. Even though he’d only owned it for a short time, it had given him no small share of misfortunes. 

Maybe it was making up for its 200 years of inactivity, he thought.

“Well, sorry to interrupt your trash-watching.” said N from behind him, who was carrying a considerably smaller pile of clothes than he’d gone in with. 

Which wasn’t saying much; it was still massive. 

“I hope I didn’t miss anything exciting. You seemed so entranced, after all.”

“Well apparently, you’re sensational.” Ravi said, trying to summon his experience in as few words as possible.

“Wow, what flattery.” the demon chuckled, and smiled with an air of smugness. “Though I didn’t need  _ you  _ to tell me that, you know.”

“Wha? Wait, that’s not what I was-”

“Well if you like me so much, you’ll buy all these for me, won’t you?” he said, dumping the small mountain into Ravi’s arms and beaming down at him.

“Yeah. That was the deal, right?” he said as he stood up, struggling a bit to put the mountain under his chin to keep it from falling. 

He feared for his wallet as he put the clothes on the checkout counter and got a wide-eyed look of fear from the unfortunate cashier. Poor thing. 

As he saw the numbers rise with every new article of clothing, he lamented not going to a second-hand store. Ravi sighed heavily and reluctantly pulled out his card. There went all of his extra spending money for the month. Though, he supposed he could go one more month without a new laptop.

The demon next to him smiled brightly as he walked beside him on the way to the bus stop, and made him carry all of the shopping bags.   
“So, that was a successful trip!” he sang.

Successful, sure. Successful in emptying his wallet so much that the inside looked like the Sahara Desert; no green.

He supposed he was getting a lot of firsts these last few weeks, but being penniless was not something he ever wanted to experience.

He could only hope that there would be better firsts to come as he struggled to fit all the bags on the bus, apologizing to the poor people sitting around him, while the demon sat comfortably in his shadow.

After carrying about 30 pounds of clothes up 13 flights of stairs, Ravi wondered to himself why he didn’t just take the damn elevator for once. He also wondered why his demon partner didn’t help him in the slightest, but he chalked it up to the demon’s so-called “post-imprisonment weakness.” He was going to make him do fitness training if he kept making excuses like that.

He dropped the bags on the ground and prepared to get some food from the fridge, when his demon halted him at the door.

“No no, it’s rest time. You remember the deal, right?”

“The deal...did we make a deal?” he asked, confused.

“Yes, yes we did. And that’s why you can leave everything to me! Now go, sleep.” he said, and physically pushed Ravi towards his room.

“Okay, I got it, already.” he said, letting himself be pushed. He decided to thank the heavens for this glorious opportunity, and laid down to sleep after a long day. This was the demon’s form of gratitude, right? Maybe, just maybe things were going to start looking up from here on out. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I was embarrassed about some of these previous chapters, and want to post them so I can get to the actually good stuff I've written for this story. Enjoy the content! Happy quarantine, y'all

Ravi flinched back to avoid the sparks from the computer that had short-circuited and  _ exploded,  _ sending flaming metal bits flying every which way and making him worry, for a second, that the posters on his wall were going to catch fire. 

His shock quickly dispelled as the sparks settled, frustration quickly replacing the panic he felt when he’d touched the keyboard five minutes ago and the thing started popping and sparking under his fingertips.

His computer had spontaneously combusted, along with all the progress he’d made on the project he was working on.

“God _ dammit _ !” he burst out in a rare display of anger, launching himself out of his chair to find a fire extinguisher. 

His demon companion stared up at him quizzically from his plush leather couch, untouched by the flames.

“Wooow, I had no idea that human technology was so explosive. It seems that everything in the modern world has a certain danger about it, hm? How charming.” he chuckled, admiring the mess of burning circuits with something akin to admiration, though Ravi sensed that the demon was laughing at him. 

Normally, he would’ve put up with this kind of lip, but today had been so horrible that his rock-solid tolerance was dangerously close to crumbling.

“Don’t you ever do anything but sit on your ass and laugh at me? You’ve got two legs that aren’t broken,  _ help  _ me!”

N was about to retort that he sometimes stood on his feet while laughing at him as well, but anyone could tell by the rapidly spreading flames and the mass of scattered papers about the room that the situation would become dangerous if not handled quickly, so he calmly (quickly enough to avoid a crisis, slowly enough to be petty) walked down the hall to grab the fire extinguisher, which Ravi described as “the red thing with the hose.” 

Ravi grabbed it, and struggled with the pin on the device before aiming at his computer, missing, and spraying the whole room with a fine white dust. It coated his entire office and fell from the ceiling, making the room look like a snow globe that had been vigorously spun for an hour in a centrifuge.

The fire was out, though neither of them could tell if it was the misdirected spray that got a lucky shot or the dust that slowly floated down from the ceiling that extinguished it.

It didn’t really matter, as long as nothing  _ else _ was in danger of spontaneously combusting. 

The two now-white figures looked at each other in a shared moment of mutual suffering before turning back to the room to admire its stark change in state.

“Well, don’t  _ we  _ look excited for winter.” grumbled N, brushing white powder out of his jet-black hair.

“Yeah, it does look like a damn Christmas card in here.” mumbled Ravi, more frustrated than joking.

The stuff had gotten everywhere, and all of his papers had been blown around by compressed air, making it look like a very festive tornado had just ripped through the room, spewing all the holiday cheer of a White Christmas with all the chaos of Black Friday. 

What a perfect metaphor, he thought as he rubbed his temples. It was only the beginning of November though, dammit.

“I must say though, your aim is the worst I think I’ve  _ ever _ seen. I would feel sorry for you, but I’m rather impressed.”

“Why me? Why is it always me?” he lamented, brushing white powder off his face and letting his outer demon’s insults fall onto deaf ears.

Ravi’s luck had always been infamously bad. But today, it was horrendous.

It started out with small misfortunes; toast flying out of the toaster to smack him in the face, getting hit by a torrent of water from a passing truck on the way to work because he’d missed the bus by 2 seconds, that kind of thing.

At first he’d chalked it off to a bad day, but things just kept getting worse.

The automatic door hadn’t recognized he was there and nearly shut on his hand, leaving him with a nasty bruise and probably a damaged reputation from the things he’d shouted. 

Da Mi spilled scalding coffee on him as soon as he stepped in the door, leaving him mere millimeters away from yelling at her when she offered to give him one of her red ribbons to warn people about his bad attitude. 

And now, his computer had exploded as soon as he’d sat down to work, in some wonderfully catastrophic piece de resistance.

There  _ had  _ been some instances lately of electronics spontaneously catching on fire, like the unfortunate incident of the company copier about a month ago, but he’d never dreamed that his own computer, the most important tool in his work, would be affected, too.

“Why? Why is everything bad happening to  _ me _ today?” he said, partly rhetorically and partly hoping that someone would answer his desperate plea. 

“First the toaster, then the door, and now this! I have the work backed up, but- the company bought the computer, so who the hell is gonna pay for it? I can’t do it, I barely have any money left!” he lamented, flopping down dejectedly on the couch, causing white powder to fly out like flour on a cutting board when he did so.

“I’m sure it can’t be all that bad. After all, money is a replaceable material resource, unlike human lives.” said N, doing his best to comfort the poor, dejected rapper man, but he was having no such luck.

“Do you even know how much a computer costs? It’s gonna take me ages to be able to pay for that...uggh, why me?” he asked again, to the void, but the void’s eyes shifted as he looked to the sides of the room with some strange emotion in his eyes. 

Was N pitying him? Or was that a look of guilt?   
“Ah, about that.” the demon started, clearing his throat either to start speaking or clear some dust out of his lungs. 

Ravi looked up at him, slowly and confused. 

The demon seemed embarrassed; his face could have been red as far as he could tell, but the white powder did well to disguise any telling changes in complexion or expression. Ravi’s eyes shifted suspiciously as he raised his head to meet his housemate’s eyes, which looked away with the smoothness of 2 black gumballs rolling down a seesaw.

“Do you know something that I don’t?” he asked, suspicion growing as the demon shifted his weight between his two feet. “About why I’m suddenly like, the universe’s punching bag?”

“Well, aha, it’s really quite funny, you see. You may have been, accidentally of course, cursed,”

Ravi choked for a second, processing the information.

“By me!” he finished, triumphantly.

Ravi choked so loudly that he swore people could hear him from space.

“You WHAT?! Why would you do that? I thought we were cool!”

“‘Cool?’ But this office is rather warm, isn’t it?” the demon asked in ignorance, tilting his head slightly.

Ravi sighed, trying really hard not to explode at his demon’s smartass responses. Though for once, he could tell the guy was being completely genuine. Genuinely stupid.

“‘Cool’ as in we don’t curse each other for the hell of it! What is  _ wrong _ with you?”

“I said I  _ accidentally  _ cursed you, there’s a difference. And if you’ll let me explain myself, I’m sure we can let this be, how do you say? Sucked under the aqueduct?”

Ravi was incredulous.

“Do you mean...water under the bridge?” he deadpanned, his headache growing exponentially in intensity by the minute.

“Yes, yes, it’s the same thing. Now, let me explain.”

* * *

“Hurry up and go back to sleep, already. Or are you  _ trying _ to deprive yourself of necessary rest?” said N, pushing Kim Ravi out of water-getting range, and back into his room.

“I’m not, I’m nooot.” the man, acting like a standing sack of potatoes, said sleepily, and continued. “I’m not trying...it’s just so dang noisy. Wha’s with the banging?”

“Oh, that’s none of your concern. Now hurry along, I can’t concentrate with you in the room.” said the demon, successfully pushing the larger man back to his room, and shoving him through the doorway.

“Concentrate? On sleeping? Do  _ you _ even like...sleep?” he mumbled, trying to keep his water glass from sloshing around.

“I suppose I could, if I wanted to. Now shoo, I have more important matters to attend to than babysitting a fully-grown adult.” he said, and shut the door, missing his housemate’s sleepy grumbles from the other side of the door.

When he heard no sounds of protest from the other side, he sighed in exasperation and turned back to his project. 

Piles of objects sat in all corners of the room, though they were not the pieces of chaos which usually inhabited them in an ungodly mess. 

No, these were what N liked to call organized chaos, because that’s exactly what it was. Chaos that had been organized.

Ever since his housemate had gone to sleep, he’d been organizing everything scattered about the living room and kitchen into piles based on color, texture, and several other arbitrary factors like which objects were wearable and which were not. Clothes were generally a safe bet for the wearable pile, as they were made to put on the human body; any simpleton could see that. 

Objects such as pots and pans, however, were debatable, as they could most certainly be worn on the human body if placed properly, but were relatively not functional.

N sighed as he placed an entire set of mixing bowls on the ground in the wearables; it looked as if he would have to re-do his list of categories yet again.

Truthfully, he was trying to do himself a favor. No matter how many times he’d walked into the house, he always mentally gagged at the state the house was in. 

Papers and clothes littered the floor, there were dishes from who knows how long ago piled up in the sink, and the floor  _ still  _ had salt crystals all over it, despite N’s constant and fervent griping.

Aside from his feet burning whenever he walked along the ground (unfortunately unavoidable for his human form), he was generally disgusted with the place, and could not  _ believe _ any sensible human would even consider living in these conditions.

Then again, his housemate was not an average sensible human. 

Perhaps he would have to teach him how to be one? 

No, there was no point in that. 

Though this human was admittedly amusing, he needed to find a contract soon, and although his housemate appeared to be an easy target at first, hope dwindled as the days went on, and N found himself getting more and more frustrated as the sun rose and set with each new day.

Well, it wasn’t like he had a set time limit; he could stay however long he wanted.

But ever since the idea of a “blood bond” had been proposed, he wondered what kind of effects it was having on him, and just how long he could really remain on Earth.

It was frustrating, not knowing things, but that was unfortunately a part of being immortal. Sometimes you got kept in the dark for centuries.

“Well, I suppose that’s just me.” he chuckled to himself, admiring his own witty self-deprecation, but sighed as he looked at the mess around him once more.

Though he had all the time in the world, he knew that he didn’t want to spend all of it putting things into piles, so he picked all of the stuff off the floor, put them haphazardly onto the counters, careful to not let any fragile items fall off of the counter, and grabbed a cloth from the wearable pile to start scrubbing.

Except it smelled. Bad.

So bad, in fact, that he didn’t even have to put it up to his face to notice its odor.

He sighed and looked down at the ground for some kind of supernatural guidance, though he knew it would do him no good, and rolled up his sleeves.

If there was one thing he’d learned from all of his lives spent as a human, it was how to clean a house.

And he was going to clean this house, even if it killed someone.

* * *

Several hours later, he felt like he was about to kill someone. 

He began folding the laundry that had come out of the dryer wet the first time, and then nearly burnt the second time around, and mumbled in his own language, like he’d been doing for the last few hours.

_ “Fuck.” _ One shirt folded.

Human technology was so damn difficult to figure out. First he nearly got himself stuck in the washing machine, and then had to deal with damp clothing from the dryer. Why don't people just use water and a bucket anymore? It was much easier to figure out.

_ “Dammit.”  _ Another shirt folded.

The house still wasn’t clean, even though he’d been working all night. Piles of stuff still lay on the counters, and though the floors were completely free of salt, courtesy of rubber gloves and a nice dustpan, the dishes were still congealed in a cesspool of floating food bits. At least the fridge was completely cleaned out.

_ “Oh, Lucifer’s arse!”  _ One of the shirts was completely unusable, as it got torn up in the dryer after a bead or something got stuck on the interior. He crumpled it, threw it behind him, and returned to his work.

“What on earth are you-mmf!”

N whipped his head around with a glare that could melt steel, to find Kim Ravi standing just outside of his door, the discarded piece of clothing covering his face.

Oops.

N mumbled a few more dark words in ancient Demonese before returning to his work.

“Wow, it looks really...clean in here. What happened?” Ravi asked, marvelling dumbfoundedly at the changed state of the living room.

_ “ _ I  _ happened, that’s what. Be grateful, mortal, I could be asking for your soul as payment, but no, I’m too nice for that.”  _ he said, mockingly.

“Uh, what?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” said N, smiling forcefully as he turned back to his housemate. Ravi shrugged and went into the kitchen to make himself his usual sad breakfast of toast and a glass of juice, and N turned back to his work.

For some reason, it felt as if the piece of cloth in his hands had taken on a different texture; more scratchy than before.    
“Stupid modern human clothing. Breaking after a quick spin in a fiery tube. Back in my day-” he mumbled, and continued working, not noticing that all of the clothes he’d touched had a similar texture.

Or well, he _had_ noticed, but didn’t care about the consequences. 

Until later.

* * *

“So, let me get this straight. You were folding my clothes, and cursing in your native language, and you…” Ravi inhaled sharply, as if that would assist his brain in processing what N was telling him, “You put a curse on my clothes. A curse.”

“Yes, that’s what I just said. Were you even listening?”

Ravi inhaled sharply again, vaguely hoping that the chemical dust still in the air would just kill him if he inhaled enough of it into his nasal cavity at once.

Finally, after realizing that death by powdered “snow” was not possible instantly, he pushed down his anger, and spoke as if he were still trying to restrain it;

“Wow. I really didn’t think it was that literal.”

The smile on his face was so large that his face, along with his composure, felt like it would crack at any second.

N kicked his foot against the ground.

“It wasn’t on purpose.” he said, bluntly.

“Well, how do you  _ accidentally  _ curse someone, then?!”

“I didn’t curse  _ you _ , I only accidentally cursed your garments. That’s all.” he huffed, and crossed his arms, not wanting to breach the subject anymore.

Ravi looked confused.

“Huh? How do you..”

“I must have imbued some of my great and extraordinary power into your clothes in my frustration during folding. I wasn’t  _ trying _ to curse you, so it certainly shouldn’t be permanent or cause your death, but-”

“You cursed my  _ clothes?! _ ”

N rolled his eyes, and Ravi swore that if his body were still made of eyes like it used to be, they’d all be rolling in unison, their only real purpose to make Ravi feel like the dumbass he was sure N thought he was.

“Yes, I cursed your garments. Do you have something blocking your ears to facts, or are you just that willing to remain ignorant?”

Ravi pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to explode as N kept striking flint over his metaphorical puddle of gasoline.

“So am I stuck like this? Am I gonna have to live with awful luck for the rest of my life?”

“Hmph. Only if you don’t find new clothes.”

At that, Ravi had decided that he’d had enough. He pushed open the door, slammed it shut, and briskly walked to the bathroom so he could at least clean himself up. Maybe get a coffee or something.

* * *

After getting the bathroom and returning himself to a slightly less-disastrous state, he looked down at his clothes and sighed heavily. Not only were they cursed, they were covered in chemical dust. There was no way he could go out in this, and there was no way he could just go back into his office and pretend everything was fine. 

What was he going to do?

“Holy cow, Ravi! Is that you?!”

Ravi’s head whipped around to find Ken standing in the bathroom door, looking like he had just seen a ghost. He hung his head. Of course Ken would find him looking like this; maybe this was part of his curse, too.

“Yeah… it’s me.” he mumbled, suddenly feeling like his chest was 50 times heavier.

“You look awful! What  _ happened _ to you?!” he exclaimed, his voice carrying concern. Ravi was slightly touched; he’d expected Ken to laugh at him.

“My computer exploded.” he said, without a hint of emotion, causing Ken’s eyes to become as wide as dinner plates.

“Wow. The Tower card told me that something big was going to happen today, but I didn’t know it was going to happen to you!” he chirped.

Ravi put his hand to his face, but froze when he felt Ken’s hand on his shoulder.

“And your aura...” he trailed off, rubbing Ravi’s arm as if he could somehow get a better sense of what was going on through touch, “I’ve never felt anything this bad before. You’re practically radiating negative energy, but it doesn’t feel like… yours.”

Ravi tilted his head up to prevent tears from falling out. Being told that you’re “radiating negative energy” by a crush was never a good thing, and he wished for nothing more than to go home and go back to sleep; maybe then, the nightmare would be over.

“Yeah… I’ve just had a really rough day.” he said, his throat tight.

There was a silence, and then,

“Well, I don’t need my cards to see that you should take the rest of the day off. Go home and get some rest, for cryin’ out loud!” Ken said, beaming, and slapped Ravi on the back.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Thanks, Ken.” he said, though he wasn’t really feeling very happy.

“No problem, buddy, just come back when you’re feeling better. I’ll tell the boss what happened to your computer, alright? He’ll understand.”

“Thanks.”

Ken began to walk out, when Ravi felt the need to ask for another favor.

“Oh, um, can I ask for one more thing?”

“Sure! What is it?”

“Do you…have any extra clothes I could borrow?”

* * *

“I have to say, I’m somewhat...impressed with your office crush’s choice in clothes.” smarmed N, one hundred percent amused by his companion’s misery.

Ravi looked towards the heavens, as if heaven could save him from his embarrassment.

Ken’s clothes were very nice, very comfortable, and very good quality. There was just one problem with them.

“I’ve never seen a human advertise their rear so prominently before, it’s quite impressive how far fashion has come.” said N, grinning ear to ear.

Ken had lent him a pair of booty shorts with the word JUICY written on the butt in large letters, along with a very brightly patterned shirt that was harmless in itself, but only served to draw more attention to poor Ravi, who had no booty and a whole lot of insecurities. 

It didn’t help that N was walking next to him, too, taking in the entire thing. 

Of course, today  _ had _ to be the first day he decided to come out and not hide in his shadow on the way home.

“If you’re going to look that flamboyant, I’m sure you’d much rather have a handsome guy hanging on your arm, hm?” he chuckled, revelling in his “partner’s” embarrassment, and Ravi wished that something would just come and kill him so he didn’t have to deal with all the stares he was getting.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to look far.

Before he knew it, a car swerved from the opposite side of the road in his direction, headlights bright like the eyes of a certain demon. 

People screamed and yelled, but he was utterly frozen.

He squeezed his eyes shut and wished that he had been more careful about his final wish.

.

He heard a crash and a crunching of metal.

.

And then he hesitantly opened his eyes again.

Shakily, he looked down at his hands, and found that he had no wounds. His legs were still there, no parts of his face were missing; he was alive.

“Sir! Are you alright?”

“Oh my god, what happened?!”

“Get out of the way, the ambulance has to get through!”

Ravi found himself swimming in a cacophony of voices, not knowing which way was up or down or how to respond. He simply nodded his head, with all the fervor of a lightly-flicked bobblehead.

He let the passersby and the paramedics take a look at him, only to determine that he was completely fine, and continued his walk to the bus station. 

He realized that he wasn’t hearing a particularly annoying voice, and turned around to look for N. He wasn’t there.

“N? N?!” he yelled, and spun around quickly, craning his head, to look for his demon companion. But he was nowhere to be found.

“N! N!!!”

Did he get hit by the car? Did he run away? Demons couldn’t  _ die _ , right? These worries and more filled his head as he ran away from the scene of the accident, hoping that he’d escaped somewhere.

“And just  _ who _ do you think you’re calling? I don’t believe I ever accepted that sorry excuse for a name.”

Ravi froze. 

N slowly rose from his shadow, and flipped his bangs out of his face. Even though Ravi didn’t particularly enjoy looking at that face, a wave of relief washed over him.

N smirked.

“Even  _ I  _ wouldn’t want to be caught dead in that outfit.” he laughed, and nudged Ravi’s arm in an attempt to make him move. “Think nothing of it.”

Ravi had no idea what he was talking about, but felt conflicted, anyway. Then again, maybe that was the shell-shock talking.

“I didn’t expect that car would come to hit you. You are wearing clothes that aren’t cursed, after all.”

N paused for a moment, thinking. And then,

“You didn’t change your undergarments, did you?”

Ravi had nothing to say to that.

* * *

On the way home, N had pulled Ravi out of the way of two falling flower pots, a runaway motorbike, a horse running through the streets (of all things), and a falling I-beam.

Time after time, he laughed and said that Ravi was of better use to him alive than dead, and though Ravi didn’t actually know what that meant, he was grateful to N for deciding not to let him die today. 

He didn’t know if demons had the same level of conscience as humans did, but he guessed it was because N felt bad about his accidental curse thing. Ravi still didn’t understand what that was about, but he didn’t care to.

When he opened the door to his apartment, sleep was all he could think about, and he made a beeline for the couch and flopped down on it.

N clicked his tongue in disapproval, but Ravi thought N could suck it. It was  _ his  _ fault that he’d been sucked into this mess.

He considered calling Hongbin and asking for advice on how to get rid of the curse, but opted against it, partly because he knew Hongbin wasn’t the best at figuring out curses, and partly because he would laugh at him for getting into such a stupid situation.

Instead, he opted to lie face-down on the couch and sigh as heavily as he could, as long as he could, for many, many times.

“Oh come  _ on _ , quit being such a sad sack about this! I mean, what’s a few near-death encounters, hm? I thought humans lived for those.”

Ravi groaned into the pillow again, lamenting what his life had become.

N was mercifully silent, but Ravi heard some banging of pots and pans in the kitchen. He must not have been particularly worried about it though, because he drifted off to sleep.

-

-

“Wake up.”

“Mmmmph.” he mumbled, and turned so that his head was facing the back of the couch.

“Kim Ravi, wake up.” said the voice, closer this time.

Ravi blinked his eyes blearily and turned back around, only to find N leaning over his face with an expression of annoyance. 

Ravi blew air at his bangs and attempted to roll back over, before a couple of surprisingly strong hands stopped him. He stopped cold; he was not expecting the demon to have such strength.

“I cooked.” he said bluntly, and gestured to the table with one hand.

Ravi had to rub his eyes again to make sure he was actually seeing things correctly. 

He  _ did  _ cook. A lot.

“Where did you..get all this food?” he asked, in disbelief.

He knew for certain that his fridge definitely did not contain this much food. And if it did, it was all spoiled at this point.

“I bought a few key ingredients and improvised.”

Ravi was just about to go to the table and dig in, when he stopped in his tracks.

“Is it...cursed?”

At this, he was swiftly chopped in the neck.

“Excuse you, I happen to  _ enjoy _ cooking. And if you aren’t grateful, then I  _ will _ poison all the food you have in the house.”

Ravi wouldn’t argue with that; he didn’t want his two year old half-bag of rice getting even more disgusting than it already was. God help him if he ever decided to use it, poisoned or not.

He took a spoonful of some kind of rice dish that was on the table (he hoped it wasn’t made from his rice, good lord), glanced at the demon standing expectantly by the table, and quickly popped it in his mouth, bracing himself for the worst.

To his surprise, it was delicious. Not 5-star chef quality or anything, but it was edible, and  _ so  _ much better than the instant food he’d become accustomed to eating over the years. Home cooking really was magical.

Hell of a lot more magical than whatever disgusting concoctions Hongbin would occasionally make to eat. And he was a witch, for crying out loud.

“Well?”

Ravi nearly jumped out of his skin. For a second, he’d forgotten the demon was even standing there.

“Iff’s real goo-” he said through a mouthful of rice, grains spewing out onto the table in front of him. 

N rolled his eyes. A smile flashed across his face for a second, before changing back to his usual grumpy expression.

Ravi didn’t notice though, as he was face-deep in a plate of chicken.

“Eat and then go to sleep. We’re going out tomorrow.”

Ravi looked up from his plate, cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk’s.

“Hm??? Buh wha abo-”

“Lucifer almighty, swallow your food before you try to speak! That’s dis _ gus _ ting.”

Ravi swallowed his food, drank some water, and tried to talk.

“But what about work?”

“Do you really think you can go in your condition? I loathe to see what  _ else _ you destroy.”

“And whose fault is  _ that _ ?”

N smoothly ignored him, and began moving dishes to the sink to wash them.

“They won’t kill you if you take a day off, right?”

“Well, not literally, but-”

“Then there’s no problem. Besides, your state has garnered pity from me. Be thankful.”

Ravi vaguely wondered if he was supposed to be touched or offended by that, but decided to forget about it and continue eating. 

He didn’t know  _ what _ was supposed to happen tomorrow, but he was sure it’d be interesting.

Yeah. Interesting.


End file.
